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At least 31 civilians have been killed in an armed attack in western Niger, near the borders with Burkina Faso and Mali, local sources said on Tuesday.
The attack occurred on Sunday in Bosiye village, in Niger’s Tillaberi region, part of the so-called tri-border area where Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali meet.
For nearly a decade, the area has been a major hotspot for terrorists.
A resident told AFP that “armed individuals killed 31 of our residents in Bosiye; 30 died on the spot, and one of the five wounded succumbed at a health centre.”
A local student union also confirmed the death toll in a statement, saying it was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the “odious and barbaric act.”
Tillaberi has been heavily affected by attacks carried out by insurgent groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, which operate across the tri-border region.
According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), Tillaberi became the “deadliest region across central Sahel” in 2025, recording more than 1,200 deaths, most of them civilians.
ACLED said terrorists killed nearly 2,000 people across Niger during the same year.
The latest attack follows a series of deadly incidents in the region.
In September, the mayor of Gorouol, the local government area that includes Bosiye, was killed in an ambush.
A week earlier, gunmen on motorcycles killed 22 villagers in Takoubatt, also in Tillaberi.
Niger’s military authorities, who seized power in a 2023 coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, have struggled to contain the insurgency despite maintaining a strong military presence in the area.
In a September report, Human Rights Watch said fighters linked to the Islamic State group had “summarily executed” more than 127 villagers and Muslim worshippers in Tillaberi in five attacks since March.
Niger is also facing violence in its southeast from Boko Haram and its rival faction, ISWAP.
Niger’s military rulers moved closer to the junta-led governments in Burkina Faso and Mali after the coup, ending security cooperation with France and the United States.
The three countries have formed a regional bloc, the Alliance of Sahel States, and announced plans to deploy a joint force of 5,000 troops to combat terrorist groups.
