Scores killed in second militant attack in southwest Niger this week

At least 137 people have been killed in the deadliest violence to strike Niger in recent memory as gunmen on motorcycles attacked a series of villages near the country's troubled border with Mali.

The latest village massacres come amid a dangerous escalation in attacks following the election of Niger's new president, Mohamed Bazoum, several weeks ago.

Government spokesman Abdourahmane Zakaria confirmed that the Sunday's killings that claimed at least 137 lives took place on the same day Niger's Constitutional Court officially declared Bazoum as the winner of February's election. 

He is due to take office on April 2 amid a rapidly deteriorating situation in Niger, long destabilised by militant in neighbouring Mali.

"In treating civilian populations systematically as targets now, these armed bandits have gone a step further into horror and brutality," Abdourahamane said in a statement read on public television on Monday.

In January, at least 100 people were killed in the western villages of Tchombangou and Zaroumdareye, the same day that Niger announced the presidential election would go to a second round on Feb. 21. Another wave of attacks less than a week ago killed at least 66 others.

READ MORE: Dozens killed in two separate attacks in Niger's Tillaberi region

Three-day mourning declared

No official statement has been made and no claim of responsibility reported so far.

This is the second armed attack targeting Nigerien civilians in a week.

Last Monday, unidentified gunmen attacked and killed at least 58 civilians returning from a weekly market in the Banibangou department, Tillaberi region, near the Malian border, according to government spokesman Abdourahamane Zakaria.

The government had declared three-day mourning to pay tribute to the victims.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the recent attacks on villages in Niger.

READ MORE: Niger votes in presidential runoff to usher in first democratic transition

Increasing violence

The violence is part of a wider security crisis across West Africa's Sahel region, which is also fuelled by militants linked to Al Qaeda and ethnic militias.

The Tillaberi region has been frequently targeted by terrorist groups based in Mali since 2017, with a state of emergency declared in the area.

Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali in the Sahel are at the epicentre of one of the world's fastest-growing displacement and protection crises.

The region hosts 851,000 refugees and nearly 2 million displaced people, according to the UN refugee agency.

Suspected militants also killed at least 100 civilians on January 2 in raids on two villages in Tillabery, one of the deadliest episodes in the country’s recent history.

READ MORE: Death toll mounts in 'terrorist' attacks in Niger