In the course of 72 hours, 15 people have been killed in a series of attacks attributed to jihadists in this region bordering Mali.
After months of relative calm, the spasms of violence are back again with greater intensity in Tillaberi (west of Niger).
Already on Saturday, October 22, eleven truckers delivering food and cement were ambushed on a deserted, sandy road between the towns of Banibangou and Tizigorou, near the border with Mali.
The victims were slaughtered by armed men, suspected to be jihadists, according to a municipal official in Banibangou.
While residents were still in mourning for that attack, gunmen targeted a gendarmerie position in the Kollo department of Tillaberi around 6:00 a.m. the next day.
Two gendarmes were killed.
In similar circumstances, three police officers were killed on Monday, October 24, after “unidentified armed individuals” stormed the Tamou police station in the same region.
On Tuesday, October 25, the ‘Groupe de Soutien à l’Islam et aux Musulmans (GSIM), an affiliate of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the Sahel, claimed responsibility for the attack, adding that it had killed “five apostate agents of France.”
The recurrence of these violence has apparently taken the people of Tillaberi by surprise.
They had begun to get used to the lull that has prevailed for several months in their region.
But between Saturday and Monday, eleven civilians and five members of the security forces were killed, forcing the local authorities to review their defense and security strategies in this vast and volatile region of 100,000 square kilometers.
Motorcycles of terror
Following the attack on the gendarmerie in Kollo, the prefect of the district, Ibrahim Kiamogo, issued an order banning the use of motorcycles both day and night in the rural commune of Namaro.
The ban came into effect on Wednesday, October 26, 2022.
These means of transport are mainly used by jihadist groups in their asymmetrical warfare with the Sahelian states.
The Tillaberi region is located in the area bordering Burkina Faso and Mali, other Sahelian countries facing jihadist violence.
Since 2017, it has been the scene of bloody actions by insurgents linked to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (EI) group, whose Sahelian branch had killed three U.S. army green berets in 2017.
Before the brief respite, suspected jihadists had also carried out particularly bloody raids on civilians in their villages and fields in 2021.
In response, Nigerien authorities have launched large-scale operations near the border with Mali, recently supported by 250 French soldiers.
After its withdrawal from Mali, the Barkhane force repositioned itself in the same border area to continue its fight against jihadist groups.
ODL/ac/fss/as/APA