ISIS and al-Qaeda put Niger in crosshairs of terrorism again

Aya Ezz

Niger was subjected to a major terrorist attack this March by a group of armed men on a bus carrying a group of passengers near Bani Bangou in the Tillaberi region, resulting in 58 people killed, according to a government statement, AFP reported.

The government in Niger confirmed that it accuses ISIS but is not sure, noting that the attack would only have involved either al-Qaeda or ISIS.

For years, the border region of Tillaberi, located between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, has been witnessing bloody attacks by terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS.

ISIS-Niger branch

In October 2020, the terrorist Abu Hamza al-Qurashi, spokesman for ISIS at the time, praised the efforts made by the terrorist organization’s branch in Niger.

Several regions in Niger have been subjected to repeated terrorist attacks for years, especially by Boko Haram, which declared its allegiance to ISIS.

According to a statement by the government in Niger, Boko Haram has carried out more than ten terrorist operations in the country since 2018, killing about 200 people during those attacks.

Insecurity

Earlier, the United Nations said that Niger suffers from insecurity, as the activities of armed groups have caused the displacement of many residents, especially with the increase in the activity of Boko Haram in Nigeria, which causes the displacement of a large number of refugees to Niger, where these migrations pose a great security risk.

The UN said that since the beginning of 2019, it has counted more than 100,000 displaced persons and new refugees to Niger, which already houses about 300,000 displaced persons and refugees, adding that the deterioration of the security situation on the borders with Nigeria has led to the movement of about 20,000 Nigerians to the Maradi region in south central Niger.

In the same context, statistics published by the World Data website, which deals with the numbers and rates of international terrorism, indicate that there have been about 55 terrorist incidents in Niger, including six suicide attacks over the past five years, which killed 768 people and wounded 210, in addition to kidnapping and hostage-taking.

The statistics indicated the concentration of terrorist operations in private residential areas, with 36 attacks alone that left nearly 700 people dead, followed by police and army stations, and in the fourth place are civil work organizations, and then commercial, governmental and religious areas.

According to World Data, most of the terrorist operations were carried out by three groups, the first of which is the Nigerian Boko Haram group, with 41 attacks, followed by ISIS and then al-Qaeda in terms of the number of operations.