A couple were shot dead in southwest Niger this week after gunmen opened fire inside a church, eyewitnesses told AFP on Friday.
The incident occurred in Niger’s Dosso region, a Sahel country beset by a decade-long insurgency pitting the military against fighters believed to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
ACLED, a non-governmental organization that monitors conflicts throughout the world, reported that approximately 2,000 people perished as a result of such violence in Niger this year.
“The attack happened in Mailo village at around 11:00 pm on Wednesday night. Christians were attending mass in the church when armed individuals came in and fired into the air. There was panic,” a local requesting anonymity told AFP.
“A man and his wife ran and hid in their house, but the gunmen followed them, and they were killed.”
Another resident said some of the churchgoers had fled to neighboring villages, and others had headed for the bush. He mentioned that the attackers had made off with cattle.
Christian-Muslim relations in Niger are largely cordial.
Nonetheless, suspected jihadists are responsible for attacks on churches in the western district of Tillaberi from 2018 to 2021, as well as the slaughter of 111 Muslim worshippers in Tillaberi this year.
