The death toll for one of the deadliest jihadist attack in Niger has been reported at least 137 people and dozens other injured. Terrorists riding in motorcycles arrived in the villages of Intazayene, Bakorat, and Wistane on Sunday, shooting indiscriminately at everything which moved.
The villages are located in the Tahoua region, bordering the Tillaberi region in the so-called “tri-border area” where the frontiers of Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali converge. The recent massacre brings the number of fatalities in the Mali-Niger border region to 236 in just over a week.
On March 15, suspected jihadists killed 66 people in the Tillaberi region, attacking a bus carrying shoppers from the market town of Banibangou, and then raided the village of Darey-Daye, killing inhabitants and torching grain stores.
While no group has claimed the attack, the area has been the operational tuff for both ISIS and Al Qaeda as both groups seek dominance in the Sahel region. However, the attacks come as Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly attack against the Malian army almost a week earlier that killed 33 soldiers in the same border region.
