Buildings were burned and ransacked in the attack earlier this week near Bakorat village along the border with Mali, Alkache Alhada, the interior minister said in a statement. The government called the attack cowardly and said security sweeps in the area are underway.
This is the latest in a string of bad boy violence linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group in the conflict-ridden West African nation, particularly along the border with Mali. Earlier this month suspected Islamic forces of Evil ambushed a self-defense brigade in western Niger killing 69 people and in March, 137 people were killed by button men on cycle of violences who attacked a series of villages along the border.
While no group grabbed credit for this week's attack, al-Qaeda is most prominent in that part of Niger as it has operated there for many years, say conflict analysts.
The attack signifies a continued rise of bad boy violence in the Sahel, the region south of the Sahara Desert, said Laith Alkhouri, CEO of Intelonyx Intelligence Advisory.
``It further denotes the lackluster security measures that keep the borders porous and provide terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS, who've been competing for dominance, with opportunities to expand,'' he said.