The death toll in an attack on villages in Niger’s restive border regions has risen to more than 70, the country’s Interior Minister, Alkache Alhada said on Sunday.
Alhada said the attack took place on Saturday in the villages of Tchombangou and Zaroumdareye near the border with Mali. At least 20 people were also wounded.
The attack is believed to be in retaliation to the earlier killing of two fighters by villagers, the Minister added.
“Officials say they suspect the attackers crossed into Niger from neighbouring Mali. The area where the attack took place has also witnessed inter-communal violence. A government delegation is now on the way to the area to investigate what happened,” Idris said.
According to a security source, at least 50 people were killed in Tchombangou and 17 were wounded in the same village.
Another 30 were killed in Zaroumdareye, Reuters reported, citing a second security source.
The violence came on the same day Niger announced the results from the first round of a presidential election.
Former Interior Minister, Mohamed Bazoum of the governing Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism was leading the vote with 39 per cent. He will now face former President Mahamane Ousmane, who amassed 17 per cent of the vote, in a runoff on February 20.
The area where Saturday’s attacks took place, Mangaize, is located in Tillaberi, a vast and unstable region where the borders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso converge.
Travel by motorbike has been banned in Tillaberi since January in a bid to prevent incursions by highly mobile rebel fighters riding on two wheels.
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