In Niger, three days of national mourning begin today after the death on Monday, March 15, of 58 people during an attack in the town of Banibangou in the Tillabéry region of the western country. The victims were villagers returning from the weekly market in Banibangou, towards the Malian border. On Wednesday morning, an extraordinary National Security Council was convened.
This extraordinary council is being held in the presence of President Mahamadou Issoufou. The authorities therefore take the issue very seriously. The last meeting of this type is actually dated in January just after the massacres in Tchomabangou and Zaroumdareye, which then left 100 dead, always in Tillabéry.
We know a little more
We know more this morning about the events of Monday, when a government press release was read Tuesday night on national television. Early in the evening, four vehicles left the Banibangou market to the villages of Chinagoder and Darey-Dey. They were intercepted by armed men who shot the passengers, set two vehicles on fire and took two others away. Cereals in nearby villages were also burned down.
New operating mode
On Tuesday, a source at the site explained that it was the armed men’s new mode: they are burning the granary to force the population to leave the villages. Hard to say today if the attackers are terrorists, bandits, cattle thieves. This is the great complexity of Tillabéry, it is often mixed together. In any case, the attack has not yet been claimed.
► Also read:Niger: new terrorist attack in Tillabéry region
.
