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At least 20 villagers killed in latest attack in Nigeria

At least 20 people were killed by gunmen in north-central Nigeria early Thursday, surivors said, the latest in a cycle of violence targeting remote villages in the West African nation.

Dozens of gunmen arrived in Plateau state’s Heipang village after 1 a.m. and opened fire on villagers, most of whom were asleep, residents said.

“In a particular family, they killed five people — both the father, the mother and the children,” said one survivor, Jacob Dadi.

Dadi said villagers recovered 17 bodies in Heipang and then more people were shot to death as the gunmen fled to nearby brush land that often act as their hideout.

A local youth group, the Berom Youth Movement, said 21 people had been killed in total and seven others were injured.

Police confirmed the attack occurred but could not provide any detail about casualties in the area, which is 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Jos, the Plateau state capital.

Such attacks have become common in many parts of Nigeria’s northern region, where several armed groups target villages with inadequate security, either killing or abducting residents and travelers for ransom.

The attacks have defied security measures, including those introduced by Nigeria’s new president, Bola Tinubu, who was elected this year after promising to end the killings.

Residents in Heipang blamed the attack on herders of Fulani origin, who took up arms after clashing with farming communities for several decades over limited access to land and water. Plateau is among the areas with the most such attacks, with more than 100 people killed in the state in recent months.

Plateau Gov. Caleb Mutfwang said he was “deeply saddened” by the attack. The governor “appealed to security agencies to redouble their efforts and put an end to the senseless killings” in the state, Gyang Bere, his spokesman, said in a statement.

By Chinedu Asadu, AP

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Nigeria envoys meet with Niger junta

Niger's military junta met with two Nigerian envoys on Wednesday, offering hope for dialogue before a summit with regional leaders that could result in military action to restore democracy.

The talks took place as Niger accused France of violating its airspace, attacking a military camp and freeing "terrorists" to undermine the country. Paris denied the charges.

Army officer Amadou Abdramane, speaking for the coup leaders, made the allegations in a video statement without providing evidence, stoking tension ahead of Thursday's meeting of West African heads of state, who are expected to discuss options including military action against the junta.

"What we are seeing is a plan to destabilise our country," Abdramane said.

France's foreign ministry rejected the accusations, saying its aircraft was operating under an existing agreement with Niger forces and its troops were in the west African nation at the request of legitimate authorities.

During its standoff, the junta has rebuffed diplomatic overtures from African, U.S. and U.N. envoys. The junta leaders made an exception by meeting on Wednesday with two envoys of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who also chairs the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in the capital Niamey, a Nigerian government source said.

The envoys - prominent traditional leaders Lamido Muhammad Sanusi and Abdullsalami Abubarkar - were allowed into the country despite closed borders.

Only Sanusi met junta leader General Abdourahamane Tiani, while his counterpart met with other representatives at the airport.

"We’ll continue to do our best to bring the two parties together to improve understanding. This is the time for public diplomacy," Sanusi told reporters upon his return to Abuja.
 

"CRUEL" DETENTION

The party of Niger's deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum, accused the junta, which seized power on July 26, of keeping him and his family in "cruel" and "inhumane" detention at the presidential residence.

In a statement calling for a nationwide mobilisation to save them, the PNDS-Tarayya party on Wednesday said the Bazoums had no running water, no electricity and no access to fresh goods or doctors.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the U.S. was greatly worried about Bazoum's safety and was still looking for a reversal of the military takeover.


"We continue to engage with our partners in the region. We continue to engage with other governments," he told a briefing.

U.S. troops are in Niger along with French, Italian and German forces as part of international efforts to combat Islamist insurgents devastating the Sahel region under agreements with the now-deposed civilian government.

Rhetoric against former colonial power France has been a feature of coups in the region over the past two years, including in Mali and Burkina Faso, whose army rulers are strongly backing the generals now in charge in Niamey.

The junta has revoked military pacts with France, but Paris has rejected that decision, saying it was not taken by Niger's legitimate authorities.
 

INTERNAL CHALLENGE

The coup was triggered by internal politics but spun into an international drama. ECOWAS, the United Nations and Western countries have pressured the junta to stand down, while Mali and Burkina Faso have vowed to defend it.

The political scene became more complex on Wednesday as former rebel Rhissa Ag Boula announced a new Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR) aimed at reinstating Bazoum.

"Niger is the victim of a tragedy orchestrated by people charged with protecting it," Ag Boula's statement said. The CRR would use "any means necessary" to stop the military takeover and supports international diplomacy, he said.

The challenge from Ag Boula raises the spectre of internal conflict in Niger, which until the coup was an important ally for the West in a region where other countries have turned towards Russia.

Western powers fear Russian influence could grow stronger if the junta in Niger follows Mali's example by ejecting Western troops and inviting in mercenaries from Russia's Wagner Group.

Ag Boula played a leading role in uprisings by Tuaregs, a nomadic ethnic group in Niger's desert north, in the 1990s and 2000s. Like many former rebels, he was integrated into government under Bazoum and his predecessor, Mahamadou Issoufou.

The coup's border and airspace closures have cut off supplies and hampered aid. The takeover has also prompted foreign financial sanctions against one of the world's poorest countries.

By Abdel-Kader Mazou and Felix Onuah, Reuters

Related story: Nigeria not ruling out force in Niger

Nigeria not ruling out force in Niger

Bola Tinubu, who also chairs the bloc ECOWAS, still believes diplomacy is the "best way forward" to resolve the crisis, according to his spokesman.

So far efforts by ECOWAS and the United States to convince Niger's new rulers to hand back power to the democratically elected leader have made little headway.

The soldiers who took charge defied a Sunday deadline to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face the possible use of force and have been unswayed by negotiations, instead staging a rally at a stadium in the capital Niamey.

"No options have been taken off of the table," Tinubu's spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said on Tuesday.

The United States said it still hopes the coup could be undone but is "realistic", a day after a top US envoy appeared to make no progress in an unannounced visit.

"At the same time, we are making clear, including in direct conversations with junta leaders themselves, what the consequences are for failing to return to constitutional order," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on social media that he had spoken to Bazoum "to express our continued efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the current constitutional crisis".
 

Delegation rebuffed

ECOWAS -- the Economic Community of West African States -- imposed trade and financial sanctions on Niger after the rebel soldiers toppled Bazoum.

Instead of heeding the bloc's seven-day ultimatum to reinstate Bazoum or face potential military intervention, the soldiers who seized power closed Niger's airspace.

The bloc also sought to send a delegation to Niamey on Tuesday ahead of Thursday's crisis summit.

But the ruling military blocked the mission, saying public "anger" triggered by the bloc's sanctions meant the delegation's safety could be at risk.

In a statement, ECOWAS confirmed that the visit by a joint delegation with African Union and United Nations officials had been refused.

In a further show of defiance and possible intent to hold on to power, the military leaders announced on Monday the appointment of Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as the new prime minister.
 

'Difficult' talks

ECOWAS is struggling with a cascade of coups since 2020 that have now hit four of its 15 members.

In Mali, Burkina Faso and now Niger, all the takeovers have been fuelled by jihadist insurgencies that have claimed many thousands of lives, forced at least two million from their homes and dealt crippling blows to some of the world's poorest economies.

On Monday, veteran US envoy Victoria Nuland met with Niger's military rulers for more than two hours but came away empty-handed.

She described her talks as "extremely frank and at times quite difficult".

She said she offered the coup leaders "a number of options" to end the crisis and restore relations with the United States, which like other Western nations has suspended aid.

"I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer," she told reporters before her departure.

Niger's new head, General Abdourahamane Tiani, did not attend the meeting, and Nuland was unable to see Bazoum, who has been detained since July 26.
 

Warnings

The military leaders in Mali and Burkina Faso have expressed solidarity with Niger, saying any military intervention would be seen as a "declaration of war" against them.

The two countries sent letters Tuesday to the United Nations and the African Union, calling on them to prevent "military intervention against Niger" where the security and humanitarian consequences of such action "would be unpredictable".

Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has also cautioned against a military incursion, which President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said would be "a direct threat" to his country.

Bazoum, 63, was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power.

He took the helm of a country burdened by four previous coups since independence, and survived two attempted putsches before he himself was ousted.

France has 1,500 troops in Niger and the United States has 1,000 personnel, most of whom are deployed at two major air bases.

AFP

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