Attackers killed 30 villagers last week in several raids in western Niger, near the Nigerian border, the governor of the Tahoua region said Monday on state radio.
“Thirty martyrs fell and at least 500 head of livestock were carried off” by the assailants in the series of attacks on Thursday, Colonel Souleymane Amadou Moussa said.
He said the attackers “withdrew into a neighbouring country where their rear base is located”.
The assailants’ identities are unknown. But Tahoua has suffered jihadist attacks and is also a stronghold of armed bandits operating between Niger and Nigeria.
The governor, who went to the site of the attacks Sunday, said the area was under the control of the security forces.
State radio reported that five people were also wounded and said that attackers on motorbikes had targeted three isolated villages in a mountainous area of the Birni N’Koni region, near the border with Nigeria.
Despite a large military deployment, the junta ruling Niger since a 2023 coup has struggled to stem the violence that has hit several parts of the west African country since 2017.
In the west, near Burkina Faso and Mali, Niger is battling attacks by jihadists from the Islamic State in the Sahel group and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).