United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk has condemned the recent attack on a mosque in Kokorou village, western Niger.
NAN reports that no fewer than 44 worshippers were killed and 20 injured in the attack last Friday.
Assailants from the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, ISGS, – an ISIL affiliate – had surrounded Fambita Mosque and randomly shot at worshippers, according to a statement from Niger’s defence ministry.
They then reportedly set ablaze a market and different homes.
“The egregious attack on the Fambita Mosque – during Friday prayers in the last 10 days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – was clearly intended to cause as many civilian casualties as possible,” Turk said on Tuesday.
This is “in stark violation of international human rights law and humanitarian law,” he said.
According to Turk, an impartial investigation should be instituted to bring those responsible to justice.
The attack came in the context of a general deterioration in the security situation in the wider Sahel region.
In recent years, the Sahel had seen a major uptick in violence.
This followed the expansion of armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL terrorist groups which took over territory in north Mali following the 2012 Tuareg rebellion there.
