Attack of Niger: 22 killed as armed men on motorcycles shoot during the baptism ceremony in Tilaberi

Men armed on motorcycles have shot 22 people, most of them attend a baptism ceremony during an attack on a village in western Niger, according to reports.

A resident told the French AFP news agency that 15 people had been killed during the Tillabéri region ceremony, which borders Mali and Burkina Faso, before moving elsewhere and killing seven others.

“While people celebrated a baptism ceremony, armed men opened fire, death and terror,” said Maikoul Zodi, local activist for civil rights, on social networks.

The Military Government of Niger has struggled to contain jihadist violence in the region, carried out by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

The AFP press agency also cited the local Elmaestro TV media as reporting a “horrible assessment of 22 innocent people loose killed without reason or justification”.

Niger authorities confirmed that there was an attack in the region but did not give injury figures.

Last week, Human Rights Watch said that jihadist groups had increased attacks in the country since March, summarizing more than 127 Muslim villagers and worshipers.

Dozens of houses have been looted and burned during the same period, he said.

The group blamed the authorities not to respond adequately to the warnings of the attacks and to ignore the calls to the help of the villagers.

Last Wednesday, 14 Nigerian soldiers were killed in an ambush in the Tillabéri region, a figure that the army announced in its weekly bulletin on Saturday.

The army said that one of its units had been deployed following a cattle theft by armed men, but the operation turned out to be “an ambush”.

It is often difficult to independently verify the actual number of victims in such attacks due to the restrictions of access and the fear of reprisals among the witnesses and the local media.

Tuesday, Mr. Zodi asked why civilians were still exposed to such insecurity and urged the government to prioritize the security and dignity of citizens.

“It is time for concrete responses, strengthens the presence of the State in vulnerable areas and show that each Nigerian life is important,” he published on Facebook.

Niger has been under military control since 2023, when the generation Abdourahmane Tchiani filed the elected president of the country, Mohamed Bazoum.

Its neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali, fighting the same jihadist insurgency, are also led by military leaders but also had trouble containing the problem.

The three expelled the French and American forces which were previously strongly involved in the fight against the jihadists who operate in the Sahel region.

In addition to reducing their links with the West, they have since trained an alliance to fight the jihadist threat, turning to Russia and Turkey for their security needs. However, violence continued.

Additional Mariama Soumana report in Niamey