2024-01-06 23:31:33
“Civilian victims” were discovered after airstrikes by the Nigerien army against “terrorists” on the night of Friday to Saturday, near the border with Burkina Faso, announced the military regime in power since July.
According to a press release from the National Council for the Protection of the Fatherland (CNSP, Nigerien military regime), the army initially “energetically repelled a terrorist attack” by a group with around twenty motorcycles, on the night of 5 to January 6, 2024 at around 7 p.m.
This attack targeted a military post in Tyawa, in the Tillabéri region (west), close to Burkina Faso.
“In the process, air strikes” were carried out around 8:30 p.m. against “a second column of GAT (armed terrorist group) on motorcycles and vehicles moving towards the military position of Tyawa,” explains the CNSP in the press release read on public television.
On Saturday, “during a search in the area, a military patrol discovered civilian victims at the site of the strike,” continues the CNSP, without providing an assessment.
The military regime, however, assures that arrangements have been made “to provide assistance to the wounded” who were evacuated to the health center in Gotèye, a nearby town.
The authorities explained that the jihadist groups active for several years in this immense region of Tillabéri, are “in disarray and in search of refuge”, following army operations but that they were still planning attacks against three security force positions in the area.
Like Burkina and neighboring Mali, Niger is faced with recurring jihadist violence, particularly in the so-called three borders zone, on the borders of these Sahelian countries.
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