At least 21 people, including two policemen, were killed the day before yesterday, Wednesday, in an attack by alleged jihadists on a bus and a truck in the Tilaberry region of southwestern Niger, near the border with Burkina Faso, authorities said yesterday.
The day before yesterday "Wednesday, at about 14:00 (local time; 15:00 Greek time), a bus and a truck carrying food and vegetables were attacked by armed thugs yet to be identified moving in several vehicles and motorcycles, at a distance of five kilometres from the border guard post of Petelkol", near Burkina Faso, a statement from the Ministry of Interior said.
"The provisional account of this criminal act is twenty-one dead, including two police officers, seven injured, including another police officer, who were taken to hospital," while the two vehicles "were set on fire," the statement continues.
A source close to the security services had given the same account on Thursday morning to Agence France-Presse.
The STM transport company announced yesterday (Thursday) that its bus, "returning from Ouagadougou, was the target of a deadly attack".
"Following this unfortunate incident, we inform our customers that departures to Burkina Faso have been suspended until further notice," the transport company, which serves several West African capitals, added."
According to the Niger Cycling Federation, two cyclists were among the dead. They were on their way to Niamey to depart for Egypt to take part in the Pan-African Cycling Games.
The vast and unstable Tilaberry region - which has a surface area of 100.000 square metres - in the "tri-national border zone" of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali - has since 2017 become a theatre of bloody attacks by jihadist organisations swearing allegiance to either Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS).
Authorities have launched large-scale distribution of free and promotional sales of grain to residents of provinces affected by acute food insecurity due to the attacks and drought.
In late February, Niger's President Moamed Bazoum announced that "talks" were being held with jihadists as part of efforts to achieve "peace" in the country.
Source: Proto Thema
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