44 Persons Killed in CAR, Niger

A total of 33 persons have been killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Niger.

While officials said 30 people were killed in fighting between militiamen and traders in a restive district of Bangui, the capital of CAR, 14 soldiers were killed after “heavily-armed terrorists” ambushed a convoy in the western Niger region of Tillaberi.

In CAR, a security source and an imam Thursday said 30 people were killed in fighting between militiamen and traders in a restive district of Bangui, the capital of CAR.

“Thirty bodies have been brought to the mosque,” said Awad Al Karim, the imam of the local Ali Babolo mosque in a district called PK5 that became a haven for many Bangui Muslims at the peak of the Christian-Muslim clashes.

A security official, who asked to remain anonymous, also put the number of dead at at least 30, without providing any further details.

In western Niger region of

Tillaberi, 14 soldiers were killed after heavily-armed terrorists ambushed a convoy.

“After a fierce battle… seven police and seven national guards were killed” Wednesday, the interior ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

“A guard has been listed as missing,” the ministry said, adding, “the enemy suffered many losses.” It did not give details.

The security forces had been escorting a team to carry out voter registration in the district of Sanam ahead of presidential and legislative elections due in late 2020, it added.

The team was “secured and returned to Sanam safe and sound,” the statement said.

Niger, a poor, landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel, is on the front line of a jihadist insurgency.

Its troops are fighting Boko Haram militants on the southeast border with Nigeria and jihadists allied with the Islamic State group in the west near Mali.

On December 10, 71 soldiers were killed in Tillaberi when hundreds of jihadists attacked a military camp with shelling and mortars.

It was the worst single toll since jihadist violence spread from Mali in 2015.

Niger is part of a five-nation anti-jihadist task force known as the G5, set up in 2014 with Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Chad.

Burkina Faso on Thursday was observing its second day of mourning after a wave of jihadist attacks in the north of the country left 42 dead, also its worst one-day casualties since 2015.