Hat tip Actuniger.com. Translation by Fousesquawk.
*Updated 3-22-21. According to Actuniger.com, the death toll now stands at 137.
Last week, we reported on a massacre of innocent civilians by a group belonging to the Islamic State of Grand Sahara in the African nation Niger. Today, there is a new massacre to report. The below report, translated by Fousesquawk, is from the French-language Niger news outlet, Actuniger.com.
Massacre in Tillia: At least 80 civilians killed according to a provisional toll
Published 22 March 2021
The toll of the massacre reported yesterday (Sunday) in the villages of Intazayene and Bakorat, in the department of Tillia, continues to grow. According to local sources, more than 80 civilians were executed in cold blood by armed individuals during a deadly raid they carried out in this zone of the region north of Tahoua, located not far from the border with Mali. Investigators continue to search for other victims beneath the rubble of tents and charred homes.
The toll remains provisional awaiting the official statement from the government, but according to local officials, less than 24 hours after the tragedy, at least 80 bodies have already been found, among which, are women and children. Some of the bodies were found beneath the rubble of tents housing women and children, which were set on fire by the attackers.
The attackers are believed to have come on motorcycles and fired blindly at everything that moved in the villages of Intazayene and Bakorat as well as the wells of Wirstane and encampments at Akifakif. According to the same sources, the villages and encampments that were targeted mostly housed Touareg people.
Hundreds of (animals) were also carried off by the attackers, who were reportedly, according to local sources, local members of the terror group Islamic State of the Grand Sahara (EIGS), who are very active in this zone situated not far from the border with Mali.
Black sequence
This latest massacre of civilians comes after that perpetrated just a week ago near Banbangou, also near the border with Mali, when approximately 60 civilians were executed in cold blood by unidentified, armed individuals. A few weeks ago, about 100 civilians were executed under almost the same conditions, also in the area of the three borders where the attackers targeted military camps in the recent past.
"In these painful moments for our country, after the cowardly and barbaric attack carried out in Tillia, I send my most sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to the injured," the outgoing president, Issoufou Mahamadou, (stated), who assured that, "everything will be done that these crimes don't go unpunished". A government statement is expected in the evening to announce new security measures as the country prepares for the inauguration of the new president of the Republic, on April 2, 2021 after a rather tense electoral cycle that lasted longer than 3 months and resulted the first democratic change in the history of Niger.
A.Y. Barma (Actuniger.com
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