14 killed in militant attack in western Niger

SANAA, Jul. 27 (YPA) – At least 14 people were killed by armed men  in the western region of the country that have repeatedly seen attacks by radical Islamists this year, Niger’s security authorities said Monday .

Niger’s interior ministry said gunmen on motorcycles killed 14 people in an area in the west of the country, Reuters reported.

The assailants killed nine people in the fields, three in a nearby village and two who were walking back to the village in the rural commune of Banibangou on Sunday afternoon, the ministry said in a statement read on national television.

It said the identity of the attackers was not known. However previous attacks in Niger’s western Tillabery region have been attributed by local officials to an affiliate of Islamic State, including raids in January that killed at least 100 civilians.

Tillabery sits on Niger’s border with Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has been the witness of bloody attacks by jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS for years.

E.M