Niger was again the target, on Monday March 16, of attacks by suspected jihadists which left about fifty dead in the west of the country, near Mali, the first violence since the election of President Mohamed Bazoum on the 21st. February.

A first attack "took place yesterday (Monday) in the afternoon and targeted a vehicle carrying passengers on the Banibangou-Chinégodar axis", in the Tillabéri region, "and there were about twenty killed ", reported a resident of a village reached by phone.

Located in the area known as the "three borders" between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, the Tillabéri region has for years been the scene of bloody actions by jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) organization. .

"These are people who had come to the Banibangou market and who were heading towards Chinégodar," a little further north, said another villager without giving any assessment.

A local elected official and a prefectural source assured "to be aware of attacks", but without being able to give an assessment or the circumstances of these attacks.

Banibangou is home to one of the largest weekly markets in this area, near the Malian border.

Other attacks targeting villages were carried out on Monday evening around 6 p.m. local (5 p.m. GMT) by "armed bandits", leaving "about thirty people killed", according to a security source.

These attacks had not yet been confirmed Tuesday evening by the government.

Elected head of state on February 21 in the second round of the presidential election, Mohamed Bazoum pledged to fight against insecurity, one of the greatest challenges for Niger, a Sahelian country among the poorest in the world, which must also fight against the Islamists of the Nigerian group Boko Haram in its south-eastern part.

"We are on the right track," said his predecessor and mentor Mahamadou Issoufou at the end of his two terms, despite the continuing attacks.

Military presence

The Tillabéri region has been the target of the worst jihadist attacks in Niger.

On January 2, between the two rounds of the presidential election, 100 people were killed in attacks on two villages in the commune of Mangaïzé, one of the worst massacres of civilians in Niger.

A year earlier, on January 9, 2020, 89 Nigerien soldiers had died in the attack on the Chinégodar military camp.

And a month earlier, on December 10, 2019, 71 Nigerien soldiers were killed in an attack in Inates, another locality in the Tillabéri region.

These two attacks on the army, which had traumatized the country, had been claimed by the jihadists of the EI group.

The Tillabéri region remains unstable despite major efforts to try to secure it.

>> To read: Some military successes of Barkhane in the middle of the terrorist chaos

A contingent of 1,200 soldiers from the Chadian army, reputed to be the most seasoned in the region, is to be deployed in the three border zone, as part of the "G5 Sahel" grouping together five countries (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina, Niger, Chad) who have been trying to cooperate in the anti-jihadist fight since 2015.

Like its neighbors Mali and Burkina, also very affected by the abuses of jihadist groups, Niger benefits from the support of the French anti-jihadist operation Barkhane, which has 5,100 men deployed in the Sahel.

>> To see: "A withdrawal of French forces" would be a mistake "

France has a base at Niamey airport, from which fighter jets and armed drones operate.

French President Emmanuel Macron pledged in February, on the sidelines of the last G5 Sahel summit in N'Djamena, to maintain the strength of this force.

The United States also has a large drone base in Agadez, giving the Americans a surveillance platform for the entire Sahel.

In October 2017, four American soldiers and five Nigerien soldiers were killed in an ambush in Tongo Tongo, a village in the three border zone.

>> To see: A crucial but contested American presence

With AFP

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