Niger announces three days of mourning after the mosque attack kills 44 | news

The authorities blamed the deadly attack in the town of Kokuru on the Islamic State in the Sahara Sahara, a subsidiary of ISIS cultivation.

government Niger Three days of mourning announced in the wake of an attack on a mosque in the southwest of the country, at least 44 people were killed.

The Ministry of Interior said in a statement broadcast on government television on Friday that the victims were killed in a “brutal” armed attack in the Vibbita neighborhood in the rural border town of Kokuru.

The ministry said that 13 other people were injured.

The SAHEL region in West Africa has witnessed a rise in violence in recent years after the emergence of armed fighters associated with armed groups al -Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) that seized the lands in northern Mali after the Touareg rebellion for the year 2012.

Since then, it has spread in the neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso, and recently in the northern coastal countries of West Africa, such as Togo and Ghana.

The Ministry of Interior Niger said that the last attack took place early in the afternoon, as people were attending a prayer service in the mosque during the Islamic month of Ramadan.

“The mosque armed terrorists surrounded the mosque to carry out their massacre with unusual cruelty,” adding that the attackers also set fire to a local market and homes.

The Ministry of Defense blamed the attack on the Islamic State in the Sahara Sahara, or EIGS, one of the companies affiliated with Azel, in a statement late on Friday.

EGS did not have an immediate reaction to the claim. Previous attacks in Niger were demanded by the al -Qaeda base groups.

The government promised to search for the perpetrators and put them in the trial.

The army’s government runs it Niger Often, armed groups are fighting in the region, and civilians are often victims of violence.

Since July 2023, at least 2,400 people have been killed in Niger, according to the Acled database, a non -governmental organization that gives an armed commodity and juvenile data.

Through the Greater Sahel region, which includes many countries, hundreds of other thousands have been killed, and millions were displaced as armed groups attacking cities and villages in addition to government security foci.

The failure of governments contributed to the restoration of security in two coups in Mali, two in Burkina Faso and one in Niger between 2020 and 2023. The three are still under military rule despite regional and international pressure to hold elections.

Since the coups, the authorities have moved away from the traditional Western allies and requested military support from Russia instead.