APA-Niamey (Niger) – The violence has forced more than 30,000 people to flee their homes in Tillaberi since January, according to UNOCHA.
On Monday evening, armed militant groups used explosives to destroy a bridge near the village of Mossi-Paga, around a 100 kilometres from Niamey, the capital of Niger, according to an army statement.
This action was probably aimed at isolating the Burkinabe town of Kantchari, located a few dozen kilometres from Mossi-Paga, near the border with Burkina Faso.
The militants continue to attack public infrastructure, demonstrating their opposition to the presence of military forces.
In April, residents of Kantchari took to the streets to demand food aid and greater security, as well as the intervention of the rapid intervention battalion against the jihadists.
According to the Burkina news agency, the government sent five truckloads of food to Kantchari on 13 April.
For the past two years, the Niamey-Ouagadougou route, through which some of Niger’s freight from Abidjan passes, has become impassable due to violence by armed groups in the Tillaberi region, on the “three borders” between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, home to jihadists affiliated to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The violence has forced more than 30,000 people to flee their homes in Tillaberi since January, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Niger and Burkina Faso have faced jihadist violence for several years, resulting in the deaths of more than 20,000 civilians and soldiers in Burkina Faso and the displacement of more than two million.
AC/fss/APA/AFP