map.
Niger on Monday declared three days of mourning and
vowed to beef up security in a western border region where
jihadists killed 100 villagers, according to a local
toll.
“We have decreed three days of national mourning, and on
security, we are going to strengthen the presence” in the frontier
region with Mali, Interior Minister Alkache Alhada told AFP, adding
that the government would also launch “forums” to defuse ethnic
tension.
Scores of “terrorists,” arriving by motorbike, killed 70 people
in the village of Tchoma Bangou and 30 in Zaroumadareye, local
mayor Almou Hassane told AFP on Sunday.
It was the biggest single massacre of civilians in the Sahel’s
eight-year-old history of Islamist unrest, according to a US group,
ACLED, which tracks the violence.
Alhada, speaking by phone after a meeting of the National
Security Council headed by President Mahamadou Issoufou, said troop
numbers would be increased to achieve “greater saturation” of the
area.
“We have to stop incursions. We have to create a kind of
security cordon, but one of the difficulties is that there’s a void
on the Malian side,” he said.
READ ALSO: About 100 Killed In Niger Republic After
Attack On Two Villages
Alhada also promised support, in the form of food aid, for
communities who had suffered losses.
– Plans to boost military –
Niger is caught in a pincer between jihadists crossing from Mali,
in its southwest, and from Nigeria, in its southeast.
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Thirty-four people were killed in the southeastern region of
Diffa on December 12 by Boko Haram jihadists.
Its armed forces, poorly equipped and trained, have lost nearly
200 men to road bombs and camp raids in the last two years.
The government has previously unveiled plans to double military
personnel to “at least 50,000” over the next five years. Defence
already accounts for 17 percent of the budget.
The jihadist insurgency in the vast Sahel began in northern Mali
eight years ago, and then spread into Niger and Burkina Faso.
Thousands of people in those countries have died and nearly
three million people have fled their homes, according to UN
figures.
Jihadist violence has also fuelled ethnic tensions.
Alhada said the government would stage forums with ethnic and
religious leaders to “prevent the risk of intra-ethnic conflict” in
the border area.
“In this region which is a string of multi-ethnic villages,
these incursions can lead to intra-community conflict. We have to
make people aware of this,” he said.
“I was there yesterday with the prime minister. It’s hard — we
saw the graves, the victims’ relatives. We have to hold back
(anger) to prevent flareups. Some people are calling for weapons,”
Alhada said.
AFP