BREAKING NEWS

Rural violence in Niger leaves 18 killed, several wounded

Eighteen people were killed and 20 others were wounded on Tuesday in violence in Niger that pitted itinerant cattle herders against farmers, officials said.

The clashes broke out near the village of Bangui along the West African nation's southern border with neighboring Nigeria after livestock belonging to ethnic Fulani herders damaged the field of a farmer.

"The nomadic herders fought with a farmer, whom they wounded. He was taken to the medical center and everything started from there," said Oumarou Mohamane, Bangui's mayor.