According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA), from 14 to 15 May 2021 over
10,000 civilians from just four of the 24 villages in the Anzourou area fled, seeking refuge in the town of Tillaberi (AFP, 17 May 2021). According to local officials, this mass migration is due to increasing jihadist violence in the region. As if to confirm this, Reuters reported on 30 May 2021 that Boko Haram fighters in 15 vehicles
killed four soldiers and four civilians in an attack on Niger"s southeastern desert town of Diffa.
Yonas Dembele, World Watch Research analyst, comments: "Boko Haram and other jihadists groups (often linked to al-Qaeda) have carried out devastating attacks on Niger in recent years, ever since they spilled out of northern Nigeria in the southeast and from Mali and Burkina Faso in the west. Their operations in the Sahel region is a matter of grave concern to leaders within the subregion and the international community. They have carried out large-scale attacks on innocent civilians, killing thousands of people and displacing hundreds of thousands of Nigerien civilians."
Yonas Dembele continues: "The majority of Niger"s small Christian population lives in the Tillaberi region, which is in the "˜tri-border" region between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. There has been a noticeable increase in violence and insecurity in this region since the beginning of 2021. The recent spate of attacks is particularly a cause of concern for the Christian minority, since the militant groups are known to target Christians and anyone who opposes their Islamist agenda."
