SAA event in Niger on Mon 4th March 2024

In Makalondi, an attack was carried out on Saturday, March 4, 2023, around 7 p.m., at the time of the call to evening prayer. The attack was carried out by unidentified armed individuals on board motorcycles and a car. According to a press release made public by the General Directorate of the National Police (DGPN), it was the city's Special Police Station that was the target of "unidentified armed bandits on board a vehicle and riding around thirty motorcycles."

Makalondi is a border checkpoint located 97 km southwest of Niamey and 13 km from the Burkina Faso border. It is close to Torodi, the capital of the department of the same name, located in the Tillabéri region.

Sources indicate that for almost a week, the entire area in which this town is located has been on alert for fear of a possible attack. According to the same sources, the clashes between police and attackers lasted only a few minutes. On that occasion, the premises of the border post and everything in it were destroyed and set on fire. The fierce resistance of the police could not, in fact, prevent the material damage from being so enormous and a civilian from being injured.

According to the press release from the National Police Directorate (DGPN), the results of the attack are as follows: a civilian shot was evacuated to Niamey, the premises of the special police station and two (2) vehicles were burned, including a personal vehicle. The DGPN adds in its press release that "security measures have been reinforced in the area."

Elements of the special forces are already on site in Makalondi and a sweep has been initiated in order to catch and neutralize the attackers who are probably terrorists known to be numerous in the area. The locality of Makalondi is often the target of terrorist attacks, terrorist attacks which have caused the death of several civilians and soldiers, forced displacement of populations and an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

As a reminder, on the night of Wednesday 15 to Thursday 16 December 2021, two customs officers, a police officer, a gendarme and three civilians, or seven people, were killed following a double attack targeting the police station and the weighbridge in the locality. Makalondi, it should be noted, is located in the infamous 3-border zone, a sanctuary for terrorist groups that sow death and desolation in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, the three countries sharing the area. It was in the same locality that in 2018, Pier Luigi Maccali, an Italian priest, was kidnapped by unidentified armed men.

It was much later that public opinion learned that the sixty-year-old was in detention in northern Mali. His incarceration lasted two years during which he was in the hands of terrorists, just like many other hostages. He was released on October 8, 2020, at the same time as the Frenchwoman Sophie Pétronin, the now deceased Malian opponent Soumaïla Cissé and another Italian Nicola Chiacchio. All were held by the terrorists of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) of Iyad Ag Ghaly.