DAKAR (Reuters) – Eighteen civilians have been killed when their transport car got here underneath assault in part of western Niger continuously focused by Islamist militants, the government stated on Tuesday.
Interior Minister Alkassoum Indatou attributed Sunday’s assault in the Tillaberi area, close to the border with Mali, to “armed bandits, aboard a number of bikes, who haven’t but been recognized.”
He stated in a press release that 13 of the victims have been from the village of Foney Ganda and 5 from the village of Tizegorou.
Local officers have blamed a collection of massacres of civilians since final yr on Islamic State’s affiliate in West Africa, which together with al Qaeda-linked militants has been chargeable for spiralling violence throughout the Sahelian nations of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
(Reporting by Bate Felix; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
