Twelve farmers were killed on Thursday in their fields during a double attack by gunmen in two villages of Anzourou, a municipality in the Tilaberi region (southwest), near Mali, AFP sources in the local government and security forces said yesterday Friday.

“We had 12 deaths in the attack that happened on Thursday at noon, around 2:00 p.m. [σ.σ. τοπική ώρα· στις 16:00 ώρα Ελλάδας] by armed men,” said an official in the municipality of Anzourou. All the victims were men, he added.

The attacks took place in the remote villages of Duku Sarau and Duku Makani, which are about one kilometer apart.

A source in the security forces was limited to “confirming” that attacks were carried out, without giving an account.

The vast and volatile region of Tilaberi, on the so-called “international border” of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, is often turned into a theater of attacks by jihadist organizations that pledge allegiance to either Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.

These organizations continue their attacks despite the deployment of strong forces and the imposition of a state of emergency.

In the fight against the jihadists, Niger is supported by the armies of France, the USA, Italy, Germany and Belgium.

Villages in the Anzuru municipality had already suffered attacks from May 2020 to August 2021, when dozens of people were massacred inside their homes, in their fields, and even inside Islamic mosques by gunmen on motorcycles.

In 2022, a food crisis hit the region, due to the lack of rains on the one hand and jihadist attacks on the other. Farmers who dared to go to the fields for the harvest were murdered.

In 2021, the authorities were forced to resettle 12,000 villagers who fled their communities after a series of attacks and ultimatums by jihadist organizations to the regional capital of the same name, Tilaberi.