NIAMEY, Niger, Aug 18, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Violence erupted this week in a 
string of villages in remote southwest Niger leaving at least 28 civilians 
dead, sources told AFP on Friday.

"For now we have recorded at least 28 dead, but the toll could go up," a 
senior official in the Tillaberi region close to Mali, told AFP.

Some of the bodies had been "carried off" by the Niger river, he added.

The violence started at sunset on Tuesday and ended midday Wednesday, the 
official said.

In Ayorou, one of four departments affected, four people were killed and 26 
injured by bullets and knives, according to a local source.

The military authorities who overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 
did not confirm the killings.

One security source said "about 100 civilians" had died in the latest 
violence near the borders with Burkina Faso and Mali where jihadists 
regularly strike.

A figure in the region's civil society said the violence was due to a "cycle 
of reprisals" between Peul herders and settled Djerma people who both 
populate the area.

"There was an attack against the herders so armed herder youths carried out 
reprisals ... and that was repeated in other villages," the civil society 
member said.

The two groups clashed at the end of April and in early May in villages and 
hamlets along the river leaving dozens dead and wounded. Thousands were 
temporarily displaced.

A local radio journalist told AFP that the April-May clashes followed 
"several murders" of villagers by suspected jihadists who steal cattle and 
levy taxes.

Under president Bazoum the authorities have regularly run awareness campaigns 
warning people of attempts by jihadists to inflame communal tensions.