AT LEAST 20 people were killed in suspected jihadist attacks on a number of villages in Niger on Saturday, according to local officials, as the security situation continues to deteriorate.

Governor of the western Tillaberi region Tidjani Ibrahim Katiella said that the gunmen arrived on motorbikes before opening fire, looting shops, stealing cattle and ordering villagers to leave.

It is among the latest attacks in the arid Sahel region, where a jihadist insurgency is evident, with a number of competing Islamist groups moving between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.

Last week UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned that the jihadist groups there were exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to escalate their campaign of violence.

On Sunday three UN peacekeepers were killed and four wounded in an attack in Mali’s northern Kidal region, and three Chadians were killed by a roadside bomb.

The Sahel has become the arena for Islamist infighting, with a battle between affiliates of Isis and al-Qaida in Mali and Burkina Faso taking place last week.

Some 4,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger last year, compared with 770 just three years earlier.