At least 70 civilians were killed in simultaneous attacks on two villages by suspected Islamist militants in Niger, near the border zone with Mali, security sources said on Saturday. 

About 49 villagers were killed and 17 people wounded in the village of Tchombangou, said one of the security sources. A second source, a senior official in Niger's interior ministry, said that around 30 other villagers had been killed in the village of Zaroumdareye.

The West African nation has previously suffered attacks by Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State. Attacks near the western border with Mali and Burkina Faso, and the southeastern border with Nigeria, killed hundreds of people last year.