NIAMEY, Niger (AP) – Motorcycle gunmen attacked a group of civilians returning from market day in a volatile corner of Niger, leaving at least 58 people dead and then burning barns on the ground, the government said on Tuesday.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for Monday’s massacres, although extremists belonging to the Islamic State of the Greater Sahara group are known to be operating in the Tillaberi region, where the villages were attacked.
The victims were returning home from a large livestock market in Banibangou, near the troubled Niger border with Mali. The alleged extremists also destroyed nearby barns containing valuable grocery stores.
The announcement was read on Tuesday evening on Nigerian state television by government spokesman Abdourahmane Zakaria, who declared three days of national mourning for the victims.
Monday’s attacks underscore the huge security challenges facing new Nigerian President Mohamed Bazoum, who won the election in late February to succeed outgoing leader Mahamadou Issoufou.
Jihadists are not only operating in the Tillaberi region, but anti-terrorist offensives against these extremists have helped lead to ethnic militias, analysts say. As a result, inter-communal tensions have worsened, especially near the Mali-Niger border.
Monday’s attack echoed a January massacre that left 100 people dead in two villages in the Tillaberi region, which had not been claimed by any extremist group or militia.
Extremists staged massive attacks on the Nigerian military in the Tillaberi region, killing more than 70 in December 2019 and more than 89 in January 2020. It is near the area where four Forces soldiers were killed. U.S. specials along with five Nigerian teammates in 2017.
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Associated Press writer Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.