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Civilian casualties" were discovered after Nigerien army airstrikes against "terrorists" on Friday night, near the border with Burkina Faso, the military regime in power since July announced.
According to a statement from the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP, Nigerien military regime), the army first "energetically repelled a terrorist attack" by a group with about twenty motorcycles, on the night of January 5 to 6, 2024 at around 19 p.m. The attack targeted a military post in Tyawa, in the western region of Tillabéri, close to Burkina Faso.
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In the aftermath, air strikes" were carried out at around 20:30 p.m. against "a second column of GAT (armed terrorist group) with motorcycles and vehicles moving towards the military position of Tyawa," the CNSP said in the statement read on state television. On Saturday, "during a sweep in the area, a military patrol discovered civilian casualties at the scene of the strike," the CNSP said, without giving a death toll. However, the military regime insists that arrangements have been made "to help the wounded" who have been evacuated to the health centre in Gotèye, a nearby town.
The authorities explained that the jihadist groups, which have been active for several years in the vast region of Tillabéri, are "in disarray and in search of refuge" following army operations, but that they were still planning attacks on three security force positions in the area.
Like Burkina Faso and neighbouring Mali, Niger faces recurrent jihadist violence, particularly in the so-called tri-border area, on the borders of these Sahelian countries. At the end of December, eleven villagers were killed in a double attack near Burkina Faso. In early October, 29 soldiers were killed in an attack, also in the west, the highest death toll since the July 26 coup that overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum.