Online Desk :
At least 137 people have been killed as gunmen on motorbikes have raided several villages in Niger’s Tahoua region, the government said on Monday.
According to a local official, the gunmen arriving on motorbikes attacked the villages of Intazayene, Bakorat and Wistane, located near the border with Mali on Sunday, shooting “at everything which moved”.
The government said the attacks had left 137 people dead, the deadliest massacre ever committed in Niger. Local officials have previously given a death toll of at least 60.
“In treating civilian populations systematically as targets now, these armed bandits have gone a step further into horror and brutality,” government spokesman Zakaria Abdourahamane said in a statement read on public television on Monday.
The government has declared three days of national mourning from Tuesday.
The coordinated raids underscore the greatest challenge facing Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s new president whose election victory in a runoff vote last month was confirmed on Sunday by the country’s top court.
The world’s poorest nation according to the United Nations’ development rankings for 189 countries, Niger is struggling with armed campaigns that have spilt over from Mali and Nigeria, killing hundreds of people and displacing nearly half a million others.
