Seven election workers were killed in Niger when their vehicle hit a mine and exploded in the rural commune of Dargol in the southwest on the day of voting. The vehicle belonging to Niger’s electoral commission (CENI) was carrying election workers to polling stations in the country’s southwest.
“They were leaving to drop off the ballot boxes and the members of the polling station,” Harouna Mounkaila, the vice president of CENI’s local branch, told Reuters.
He informed that three other workers were seriously wounded in the accident.
It currently remains unclear if the vehicle was deliberately targeted. The blast took place in the town of Dargol, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Niamey in the so-called tri-border region where Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso converge.
Notably, armed groups with links to al-Qaida and ISIS have strengthened their foothold in the region and launched frequent attacks in the past. The vast and unstable region has been under a state of emergency since 2017. An attack on two villages near the border in January killed at least 100 civilians, the worst such incident in recent memory.
The accident took place on Sunday when Niger held a presidential election runoff between frontrunner Mohamed Bazoum, loyal to outgoing president Mahamadou Issoufou, and former president Mahamane Ousmane.
In the first round of the election that was held on Dec. 27, ruling party candidate Bazoum won 39.3% of the vote to Ousmane’s 17%. Bazoum then won the endorsements of the candidates who came third and fourth in the first round.
The voting is set to bring about the first democratic transition of power in the coup-prone country’s history.
Election workers began to count the votes shortly after polling stations were closed on Sunday at 7 p.m. (1800 GMT). The voting results are expected by Friday.
