Niamey, 22 March 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Forty-four people have been killed in a terrorist attack on a mosque in Niger, authorities in the West African country said on Saturday.

Suspected members of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) group surrounded the building during Friday prayers before massacring worshippers, according to the Interior Ministry in the capital Niamey.

Thirteen other people were injured in the attack carried out in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, four of them seriously, the statement read out on state television added.

The attack took place in Fambita in Niger's south-western Tillabéri region, which borders Mali and Burkina Faso.

The military-led transitional government declared three days of national mourning. More than 99% of Niger's approximately 28 million inhabitants are Muslim.

The border triangle between the three states is a stronghold of Islamist terrorist groups and is regarded as one of the most dangerous regions in the world.

Two days earlier, Niger's army claimed to have killed 45 ISGS members.

After the coup in 2023, the country ended military cooperation with most of its former counter-terrorism partners, including Germany, France and the United States.

Since then, the number of victims of terrorist attacks has risen again. 

According to the conflict tracking organization Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), around 1,700 people were killed in Niger in 2024, including at least 416 in attacks on civilians.

More, than 4,000 people were killed in Mali last year and more than 7,500 in Burkina Faso, ACLED estimates.

Photo: EPA