Fresh reports reaching the desk of Africa Today News, New York has revealed that a suspected jihadist attack on some three lorries and a motorcycle in the western Niger near the border with Mali has reportedly killed 11 people.
The deadly attack had taken place on a remote road which had been located in the so-called “three borders” region between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso which had also been plagued by jihadist insurgents linked with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
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A local government official in the Banibangou area where the attack had occurred had also revealed that some of the armed men had actually intercepted some of the three trucks which had been on a remote road on Saturday morning and killed their nine occupants and two people riding a motorcycle also died, he added.
A local lawmaker also confirmed the toll of 11 dead, saying two of the trucks were burned and the other taken away.
The attacks by the militants had been less frequent in recent months in Banibangou, located in the vast and unstable Tillaberi region in western Niger.
In another report, a yet-to-be-identified number of civilians were on Friday killed in a northern Malian town attacked by jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State group, according to a local elected official and the leader of an armed group.
It was the first time the town of Talataye, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) from the city of Gao, has been attacked on such a scale by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS).
On Tuesday, the jihadists fought a fierce battle with rivals from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) and other armed groups, including the Tuareg-dominated Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA), various people familiar with the events told reporters.
The ISGS fighters, who emerged from the bush on motorbikes, took control of the town Tuesday evening after more than three hours of bitter fighting.
The situation on the ground remains unclear, as information is difficult to come by in the dangerous and remote Sahel area, largely cut off from communication networks.
The death toll also varies according to different accounts.