Niger

The president of Niger discusses if his country will become the new focal point in the fight against ISIL and al-Qaeda.

Eighteen civilians have been killed in two suspected jihadist attacks in the west of Niger near the Sahel nation’s border with Mali, the government said Tuesday.

As France and its European allies prepare to leave Mali, Paris plans to increase its military cooperation with Niger in the fight against Islamist insurgents in the Sahel.

Suspected jihadists killed 25 civilians in Niger in a lawless desert region near the border with Mali, local officials said on Wednesday.

At least 69 people, including a local mayor, have been killed in an attack in Niger’s volatile “tri-border” zone with Burkina Faso and Mali, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

A regional franchise of the so-called Islamic State is stepping up attacks against civilians in western Niger. This article is the first of two reports exploring what’s driving the crisis and the limitations of efforts to address it.

Increasing numbers of children are being killed or targeted for recruitment by armed groups in conflicts raging at Niger’s borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, Amnesty International said in a report published Monday.

An attack by hundreds of Boko Haram fighters on a town in Niger’s jihadist-plagued southeast killed 16 soldiers and wounded nine others, Defense Minister Alkassoum Indatou told AFP on Wednesday.

Unidentified armed men have killed 37 civilians, including 14 children, in an attack on a village in southwest Niger, according to internal security service memos and a local official.

More than 420 civilians have been killed in jihadist attacks in western Niger this year and tens of thousands of people have fled their homes, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday.