NIAMEY, Jan 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An armed attack has killed at least 31 civilians in western Niger near the borders with Burkina Faso and Mali in a region rife with jihadist groups, local sources said.
The assailants struck on Sunday in a village lying in the Tillaberi region, located in the so-called tri-border area — a flashpoint zone where the frontiers of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali converge.
Jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have made the region a fiefdom, carrying out deadly attacks for nearly a decade.
Tillaberi became the “deadliest region across central Sahel” in 2025, with more than 1,200 deaths, most of them civilians, according to ACLED, an NGO that monitors conflicts.
“On Sunday, armed individuals killed 31 of our residents in Bosiye; 30 died on the spot, and one of the five wounded succumbed at a health centre,” a resident said.
A local student union also confirmed the toll in a statement, saying it was “deeply shocked and saddened” by “this odious and barbaric act”.
In September, the mayor of Gorouol, the local area where Bosiye is located, who had been appointed by the military authorities, was killed in an ambush.
A week earlier, armed men on motorcycles had killed 22 villagers in Takoubatt, also in Tillaberi.
Niger’s military leaders, who came to power in a 2023 coup, have struggled to contain jihadist groups in Tillaberi, despite maintaining a large army presence in the region.
According to ACLED, jihadist violence killed nearly 2,000 people in 2025 in Niger.
Human Rights Watch said in September that the Islamic State group had “summarily executed” more than 127 villagers and Muslim worshippers in Tillaberi in five attacks since March.
Niger also faces Islamist militant violence in the southeast from Boko Haram and its rival militant group ISWAP.
The coup in Niger — which overthrew the democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum — has seen the new military leadership move closer to its two neighbours and force out French and US forces who had been helping to combat the jihadists.
Niger and its junta-led neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali have teamed up to create their own confederation, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), and have announced the creation of a 5,000-strong force for joint military operations. — NNN-AGENCIES