About 700 military personnel are in the West African country, down from the roughly 1,000 who were there before troops began their withdrawal. On June 7, U.S. Africa Command began pulling forces out of Niger, with service members boarding a C-17 aircraft at a base in the capital city of Niamey.
[May 17 2024 Chris Maier, Gen. Ekman there…PM says U.S. did nothing against militants ]
[May 15 2024 ]
Chris Maier, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, and Lt. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, who oversees force development on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, arrived Tuesday in Niamey, Niger’s capital, and were set to begin talks with Nigerien officials Wednesday.
[May 14 2924
AFRICOM’s director of strategy, engagement and programs, Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman has already been in Niamey for “a couple of weeks,” one US official said.
“The Americans stayed on our soil, doing nothing while the terrorists killed people and burned towns,” Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, Niger’s prime minister said. “It is not a sign of friendship to come on our soil but let the terrorists attack us. We have seen what the United States will do to defend its allies, because we have seen Ukraine and Israel.”
[September 29 2023 Niger: attackers on motorbikes ]
Hundreds of Islamist militants riding motorbikes have attacked a town in south-western Niger, killing 12 soldiers, the defence ministry says.Niger’s Defence Minister Salifou Mody said Thursday’s attack was carried out by “several hundred terrorists riding their motorcycles” on the town of Kandadji. Reports say soldiers from across the country have been recalled to the capital, Niamey, to guard the coup leaders, leaving large areas vulnerable to militant attacks.
{June 24 2021 ]
One local elected official said “attackers on motorbikes killed at least 15 people around 3:30 pm (1430 GMT), four in the village of Danga-Zouani and four in the nearby village of Korombara. The others were killed in their fields”.
Tillaberi is located in the notorious “tri-border zone” between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, one of the hotspots of fighting across the arid Sahel region on the southern fringes of the Sahara desert.
[May 3 2021 Patrol ambushed by bandits ]
Sixteen Nigerien soldiers were killed and another was missing after an ambush on a military patrol in the Tahoua region near the border with Mali.
During the attack by “bandits” on May 1 2021 the toll was “16 dead, six injured and one missing”.
“A large number of armed individuals attacked the village of Kodyel in the district of Foutouri this morning, causing several dozen deaths in the civilian population,” a regional security source told AFP.
[March 22 2021 western towns attacked ]
Gunmen aboard motorcycles have attacked a series of villages near Niger’s troubled border with Mali, leaving at least 137 people dead . They attacked Intazayene, Bakoarate and Wistane and surrounding areas. The attack in Niger took place in the Tahoua region, which borders the Tillaberi region where the borders of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali meet.
The latest village massacres come amid a dangerous escalation in attacks following the election of Niger’s new president, Mohamed Bazoum, several weeks ago.
The death toll was initially put at at least 40, but was later revised up to 137 .
On March 15, 66 people were killed in the Tillaberi region when suspected jihadists attacked a bus carrying shoppers from the market town of Banibangou, and then raided the village of Darey-Daye, killing inhabitants and torching grain stores.
[March 14 2021]
The assailants March 15 2021 intercepted four vehicles transporting passengers from a weekly market to the villages of Chinagoder and Darey Dey,
“These individuals then gutlessly and cruelly proceeded to carry out targeted executions of passengers,” it said. “In the village of Darey Dey, they killed people and burned the granaries.”
[December 15 2019]
Several hundred militants attacked a base in the western Niger town of Inates over a period of three hours on the evening of December 10 2019. The attack comes at the end of a year of intense violence in Inates, a cattle herding community near the banks of the Niger River 200 km (130 miles) north of the capital Niamey. 71 are dead, 12 wounded and 30 are missing
Prersident Mahamadou Issoufou receives bodies
Crescent Shift 