According to Governor Bello, between January 1 and 17, this year, bandits terrorising more than 300 Niger towns have killed over 400 people and kidnapped 200 more.
200 Niger resident, including three Chinese nationals, were abducted, according to the governor.
He disclosed this after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Villa in Abuja on Tuesday.
“We also lost some security personnel – there were 25 of them.” Sadly, we lost approximately 165 people and 30 local vigilantes,” Mr Bello mourned. “So it’s a pretty grave scenario that we’ve been dealing with in the last few weeks since the beginning of the year.”
The Niger governor also revealed that people of numerous areas in Niger paid levies to bandits in order to prevent attacks.
President Buhari, in a statement last week, urged citizens in the affected areas to exercise “patience.”
Prior to 2015, Buhari blamed increased insecurity on the Peoples Democratic Party’s 16-year misrule, promising to address it if re-elected.
However, since his regime took over the reins of power in 2015, insecurity has deteriorated.
