At least 31 people were killed on Sunday, January 18, in an armed attack by jihadists in western Niger, near the borders with Burkina Faso and Mali, a region long plagued by militant violence.
The attack took place in a village within the Tillaberi region, located in the tri-border area where Niger Republic, Burkina Faso and Mali meet.
This zone has become a stronghold for jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, IS, who have carried out repeated deadly attacks for almost ten years.
Tillaberi was the most lethal region across the central Sahel in 2025, recording more than 1,200 deaths, most of them civilians, according to ACLED, a conflict monitoring NGO.
“On Sunday, 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 resident said.
A local student union also confirmed the death toll in a statement, describing the attack as odious and barbaric and saying it left members deeply shocked and saddened.
In September 2025, the mayor of Gorouol, the local area where Bosiye is located, who had been appointed by the military authorities, was killed in an ambush. A week earlier, gunmen on motorcycles killed 22 villagers in Takoubatt, also in Tillaberi.
Niger’s military rulers, who seized power in a 2023 coup, have struggled to contain jihadist groups in Tillaberi despite maintaining a significant army presence there.
The jihadist violence, it was gathered, killed nearly 2,000 people in Niger in 2025.
Human Rights Watch said in September that the Islamic State group had summarily executed more than 127 villagers and Muslim worshippers in Tillaberi in five attacks since March.
Niger also continues to battle Islamist militant attacks in the southeast from Boko Haram and ISWAP.
Since the coup that removed President Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s military government has moved closer to Burkina Faso and Mali and expelled French and US forces who were supporting anti-jihadist operations.
The three junta-led states formed the Alliance of Sahel States, AES, and announced plans for a 5,000-strong joint force to conduct coordinated military operations.
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