At least 20 people are now known to have been killed after gunmen raided a region in Niger.
The tragedy took place on Monday in the country’s western region of Tillabery.
The local press reports that the victims, all of them villagers, were returning from the weekly market at Banibangou, located on the edge of the border with Mali.
Armed men stopped their vehicles before killing them.
In early January 2021, around 100 civilians were killed in two villages located in the “three border zone” by gunmen.
That attack prompted Niger’s president Mahamadou Issoufou, to order the immediate deployment of Special Forces as part of Operation Almahaou to secure the western province.
TE/fss/as/APA