Niger

Nearly 6,000 people who fled jihadist violence in 2015 have returned home to the town of Baroua in southeast Niger's troubled Diffa region, local authorities said Monday.

More than 10,000 people have fled their homes in the west of Niger over the past two days, a UN agency said Monday, with local officials blaming jihadist attacks.

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.

Nineteen civilians were killed when armed men raided a village in west Niger close to the border with Mali, a local official told AFP on Sunday, in the latest bloodshed in the troubled region. … Attacks against civilians have increased since the beginning of the year — more than 300 people died in three series of attacks in western Niger. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks so far.

Niger was praised for its first democratic transfer of power in history. But a failed coup this week shows new President Mohamed Bazoum faces an uphill battle to stabilize his country.

Niger's government says an attempted military coup was stopped Wednesday, two days before the new president is due to take office.

Scores of people have died in the deadliest suspected jihadist massacre ever to hit Niger, the government said Monday, underscoring the huge security challenge facing new President Mohamed Bazoum. Government spokesman Zakaria Abdourahamane said 137 people had died in Sunday’s raids in villages near Niger’s border with Mali.

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Supporters of the losing candidate in Niger’s presidential election burnt tyres, threw rocks and set several buildings on fire on Thursday, in a third day of violent protests in the capital Niamey.

The United Nations Secretary-General has strongly condemned Saturday’s attack by unidentified gunmen on two villages in western Niger, which reportedly left about one hundred people dead, while hundreds of survivors fled the scene on foot. 

Niger's ruling party candidate Mohamed Bazoum will face former president Mahamane Ousmane in a presidential election runoff in February, according to provisional results of the first round of the contest announced by the electoral commission on Saturday.