Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye massacres

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Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye massacres
Part of Jihadist insurgency in Niger
Location Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye, Tondikiwindi, Ouallam Department, Tillaberi Region, Niger
DateJanuary 2, 2021
11am
Deaths105
  • 76 in Tchoma Bangou
  • ~30 in Zaroumdareye
Injured75
PerpetratorIslamic State flag.svg Islamic State in the Greater Sahara
No. of participants
100 motorcycles
MotiveReprisal for lynching of two ISGS tax collectors

The Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye massacres [1] [2] took place on January 2, 2021, when 105 people were killed and 75 injured in attacks by Islamic State in the Greater Sahara on the villages of Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye in Tondikiwindi, Ouallam Department, Niger. The massacres were one of the deadliest events in Nigerien history.

Contents

Background

The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) is active in the Tillaberi region of western Niger, where Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye are located. [3] To prevent attacks on civilians and Nigerien forces by jihadists, Nigerien officials banned travelling by motorbike, a common tactic of jihadists, throughout Tillaberi in January 2020. [2] However, attacks still occurred in Tillaberi, with seven Nigerien soldiers killed in an ambush in the region on December 21 and 34 civilians killed in massacres by jihadists in Toumour. [2]

Former Nigerien minister and Tillaberi native Issoufou Issaka stated that the massacres in Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye were reprisal attacks for the lynching of two jihadists that had come to collect taxes in the villages by residents on December 15, 2020. [2] In response to the killings, ISGS declared the villages "enemy settlements", abducting and killing the chief of Tchoumbangou. [4] The inhabitants of Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye are also predominantly Zarma, who are engaged in a war with the Fulani, who predominantly make up ISGS. [4]

Massacres

The massacres began at around 11am local time, when results from the first round of the 2020–21 Nigerien general election were being announced. The perpetrators had likely crossed the border from Mali to reach the villages, splitting into columns on around 100 motorcycles to attack them. [1] [5] A survivor of the massacres stated that as soon as the ISGS fighters invaded the village, residents rushed inside their homes and only heard the sound of the motorbikes. [4] The jihadists targeted and burned granaries in the town as well, forcing residents who didn't leave after the attack to be unable to stay in the village long afterward. [4]

76 people were killed in Tchoma Bangou and at least 30 were killed in Zaroumdareye, including 17 children. [4] 75 people were wounded as well, with 26 being aided by the International Committee of the Red Cross and others being sent to hospitals in Niamey and Ouallam. [1] [6] Nigerien soldiers and FDS arrived in the villages after the jihadists and survivors had left. [4]

Aftermath

Nigerien Prime Minister Brigi Rafini led a delegation to the villages the weekend after the massacres occurred. [1] Around that same time, Nigerien president Mahamadou Issoufou stated he would hold a security council for the massacres, and announced three days of mourning across the country. [1] [7] Mohamed Bazoum, the winner of the first round of the presidential elections, condemned the massacres and promised to fight against ISGS. [1] French officials condemned the massacres. [8]

After the massacres in Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye, an anonymous message was shared around Zarma online groups blamed Fulani for the attacks and vowed revenge. [4] ISGS claimed the attack was revenge for the proliferation of pro-government self-defense militias in the region. [4]

Tchoma Bangou was attacked again on July 21, 2021, but this attack was repelled by Nigerien soldiers in the village. [4] Five civilians, four soldiers, and 40 ISGS fighters were killed. [9]

Related Research Articles

Sabara Bangou is a village in the north of the rural commune (municipality) of Tondikiwindi, Ouallam Department, Tillabéri Region in southwestern Niger, 180 km north of the nation's capital Niamey and 22 km south of the border with Mali.
The village has about 70-75 huts/dwellings, irregularly clustered. There are no roads, just trails that connect to nearby villages such as Soufaré, Tiloa, Diéno Koara, Tongo Tongo, Sinka Koira, Gollo, Gouré Tondi and Kokorobé Koukou .
The population of the commune consists for 99% of the Zarma people. Most of them own cattle, sheep, goats and dromedaries, renting them out to the Fulani people or Tuareg people for tending. Though arable land is rare and poor, there is also some agriculture, mostly millet and sorghum. The area is part of the Sahel and consists of a vast expanse of plateaux and hills. The physical environment is in an advanced state of degradation caused by habitat destruction, poaching, and by the viccisitudes of the local climate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic State – Sahel Province</span> Islamic State affiliate

The Islamic State – Sahel Province(ISSP), formerly known as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS), is an Islamist militant group adhering to the ideology of Salafi Jihadism. IS-GS was formed on 15 May 2015 as the result of a split within the militant group Al-Mourabitoun. The rift was a reaction to the adherence of one of its leaders, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, to the Islamic State. From March 2019 to 2022, IS-GS was formally part of the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP); when it was also called "ISWAP-Greater Sahara". In March 2022, IS declared the province autonomous, separating it from its West Africa Province and naming it Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP).

The 2017 Ayorou attack occurred on 21 October 2017 when armed militants from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked a Nigerien military outpost in the village of Ayorou in southwestern Niger, killing 13 gendarmes. Occurring just weeks after a similar attack in the area killed four American and four Nigerien troops, the attack was carried out by ISGS gunmen who crossed the porous border from Mali.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kouré shooting</span> Part of the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel

The Kouré shooting was a mass shooting that occurred in Niger on 9 August 2020. The attack left at least 8 civilians dead, six French and two Nigeriens. The attack took place in Kouré, a rural community in Tillabéri Region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jihadist insurgency in Niger</span> Civil conflict in Niger

Since 2015, the border area between Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger has been a hotbed for jihadist forces originating from Mali. The insurgency has taken place in two distinct regions of Niger. In southwest, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and the Nusrat al-Islam have carried out attacks in the tri-border area with Burkina Faso and Mali. Meanwhile, in the southeast, the Islamic State in the West African Province has established control in parts of southern Niger.

This article lists events from the year 2021 in Niger.

On 21 March 2021, armed jihadists from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked the villages of Intazayane, Bakorat, Wirsnat, and several other hamlets and camps around Tillia, Tahoua Region, Niger. The attacks killed 141 people, mostly civilians, and injured several others.

The Tazalit attack, also known as the Tazalit massacre, occurred on October 6, 2016, when unknown jihadists attacked Nigerien forces at the Tazalit refugee camp in Niger, killing dozens of Nigerien soldiers. The attack was the deadliest attack on Nigerien forces so far during the jihadist insurgency in Niger.

On November 8, 2016 Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) fighters attacked Nigerien forces in Bani-Bangou, Tillabéri Region, Niger.

On February 22, 2017, jihadists from Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) attacked Nigerien forces in Tilwa, Ouallam Department, Niger.

On March 6, 2017, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) militants attacked Nigerien forces between Wanzarbe and Yatakala, Niger.

Between May 31 and June 1, 2017, clashes broke out between Nigerien forces and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) near Abala, Niger. These clashes expanded to the Nigerien-Malian border near Bani-Bangou, and on June 1 the ISGS militants were confronted by French, Malian, and Tuareg militias when the militants fled towards Ménaka Region, Mali.

The JNIM-ISGS war is an ongoing armed conflict between Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) and the Islamic State – Sahil Province (ISGS), the Sahelian branches of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State respectively. Since ISGS' formation in October 2016 and the creation of the JNIM coalition in 2017, the two groups had been described as the Sahelien exception or Sahelien anomaly: despite the global war between al-Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates since the latter's splinter from the former in 2014, both ISGS and JNIM have ignored each other and in rare cases worked together against Malian, Nigerien, Burkinabe, French, and international governments and non-Islamist militias until 2020.

On July 1, 2019 Islamic State in the Greater Sahara militants attacked the mining town of Inates, Tillabéri Region, Niger, killing eighteen Nigerien soldiers.

On March 12, 2020, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara militants attacked an outpost of the National Guard of Niger in Ayorou, Niger, killing several soldiers. French and Nigerien counterattacks killed dozens of ISGS militants.

On March 15, 2021, jihadists from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked the village of Darey-Daye, Tillabéri Region, Niger, killing sixty-six civilians. The attack occurred two months after the Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye massacres, the deadliest attacks on civilians by ISGS in Niger.

On April 17, 2021, Fulani militants from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) attacked the Zarma village of Gaigorou in Tillabéri Region, Niger, killing nineteen civilians. The massacre was part of a series of massacres on Zarma areas by ISGS since the beginning of 2021.

On May 1, 2021, at least sixteen Nigerien soldiers were killed in an ambush in Intoussan, Tillabéri Region, Niger by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. Nigerien officials reported the ambush as initially being located in Tillia, Tahoua Region, although footage from the attack posted by ISGS later showed the ambush occurring in Intoussan.

On July 25 and 28, 2021, jihadists from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked civilians in the villages of Wiye and Deykoukou, Bani-Bangou Department, Tillabéri Region, Niger, killing at least 33 people. All of the victims were Zarma, and the massacre was part of the Fulani-Zarma conflict and a series of massacres against Zarma civilians by the ISGS.

On August 16, 2021, Islamic State attacked the town of Darey-Daye, Tillabéri Region, Niger, killing at least 37 people. The massacre was the second major attack on Darey-Daye in 2021, after a massacre by the ISGS in March killed 66 people.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "At least 100 die in Niger attacks blamed on jihadists". The Guardian. Agence France-Presse. 2021-01-03. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-06-24.
  2. 1 2 3 4 AFP, Staff Writer With (2021-01-04). "100 Dead in Attacks on Two Western Niger Villages". The Defense Post. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
  3. ↑ Stanicek, Branislav; Betant-Rasmussen, Mathilde (September 21, 2021). "Jihadist networks in sub-Saharan Africa: Origins, patterns and responses" (PDF). European Parliament Briefing. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "I Have Nothing Left Except Myself: The Worsening Impact on Children of Conflict in the Tillaberi Region of Niger" (PDF). Amnesty International. September 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Niger village attacks killed 100, says prime minister". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
  6. ↑ "Civilians trapped by conflict in Mali and Niger". International Committee for the Red Cross. 2021-01-15.
  7. ↑ "Niger: 100 Deaths Not Without Remorse". Niger: 100 Deaths Not Without Remorse. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
  8. ↑ "Niger – Attacks on Tchombangou and Zaroumdareye (2 January 2021)". Ministere de l'Europe et des Affaires Etrangeres. January 2, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  9. ↑ "49 Killed in Niger Armed Attack". Voice of America. 2021-07-12. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
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