At least 28 people killed in extremist attack in Niger

An attack by the jihadi group Boko Haram in a village in Niger’s southeast killed at least 28 people, Niger’s authorities has mentioned.

Attackers set fireplace to Toumour’s market and homes and started capturing at anybody who tried to flee throughout the assault that started Saturday evening and ended Sunday, the federal government mentioned on Monday.

The governor of Diffa, Issa Lemine, visited the location of the attack and mentioned it was an indescribable tragedy with a whole lot of houses destroyed and people scattered.

Currently the inhabitants is in disarray, hiding in the bush and the encircling villages, he mentioned.

The Nigerien authorities has introduced 72 hours of mourning.

Toumour is a Nigerien village situated on the sting of the Komadougou River. Located about 75 kilometers east of Diffa, Boko Haram has attacked there earlier than, arriving in canoes at evening.

Among the lifeless have been residents who drowned after throwing themselves into the river in an try to flee, the federal government mentioned.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack and expressed condolences to the bereaved households, in line with a press release by his spokesman in New York.

Mr. Guterres regrets that this barbaric attack disrupted the peaceable holding of municipal and regional elections in the Diffa area, the assertion mentioned.

Niger held native elections Sunday in greater than 220 municipalities. The West African nation will maintain presidential and legislative elections in about two weeks.

Boko Haram is predicated in neighboring Nigeria. Its decade-long insurgency has centered on assaults inside that nation, however the extremists have additionally staged assaults in Niger and Cameroon.