UN Condemns Attacks On Refugees In Western Niger As 137 Reported Dead

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd March, 2021) The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) strongly condemns attacks on refugees in Western Niger that killed at least 137 people, the agency's spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov said on Tuesday.

"The UN Refugee Agency condemns in the strongest terms the attacks in western Niger that killed 137 people, many of them already displaced after having fled earlier violence," Cheshirkov said in a press briefing in Geneva.

According to UNHCR, the incident on Sunday afternoon saw armed assailants on motorbikes attack the villages of Intazayane, Bakorat and Wirsnat in Niger's Tahoua region, located about 50 kilometers from the Malian border.

UNCHR estimates that Niger's Tahoua and Tillaberi regions, bordering on Burkina Faso and Mali, are currently hosting about 204,000 refugees and internally displaced people.

Sunday's incident was not the first attack on refugees in Niger. Last May, armed groups assassinated refugee leaders and destroyed the water supply for the displaced population, the agency noted.