Niger junta suspends BBC accusing it of 'spreading false news' in coverage of attack

DAKAR, Senegal — Niger's ruling junta suspended the BBC for three months over the broadcaster's coverage of an extremist attack that allegedly killed dozens of Nigerien soldiers and civilians, authorities said Thursday.

''BBC broadcasts false information aimed at destabilizing social calm and undermining the troops' morale,'' communications minister Raliou Sidi Mohamed said in letters to radio stations that rebroadcast BBC content. Mohamed asked the stations to suspend BBC's programs ''with immediate effect.''

The BBC said it had no comment on the suspension.

Popular BBC programs, including those in Hausa — the most-spoken language in Niger — are broadcast in the Central African country through local radio partners to reach a large audience across the region.

The British broadcaster had reported on its website in Hausa on Wednesday that gunmen had killed more than 90 Nigerien soldiers and more than 40 civilians in two villages near the border with Burkina Faso.

The French broadcaster Radio France International, also known as RFI, also reported on the attack, calling it a jihadi attack and citing the same death toll.

Niger's authorities denied that an attack happened in the area in a statement read on state television and said it would file a complain against RFI for ''incitement to genocide.''

Niger, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by jihadi groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia's mercenary units for security assistance.

But the security situation in the Sahel has worsened since the juntas took power, analysts say, with a record number of attacks and civilians killed both by Islamic militants and government forces.

Meanwhile, the ruling juntas have cracked down on political dissent and journalists. Earlier this year, Malian authorities banned the media from reporting on the activities of political parties and associations. Burkina Faso suspended the BBC and Voice of America radio stations for their coverage of a mass killing of civilians carried out by the country's armed forces.

In August 2023, Niger banned French broadcasters France 24 and RFI, a month after its military rulers took power in a coup.

''Generally speaking, the three juntas censor the media as soon as the security situation in the country is addressed in an unpleasant manner or when abuses are revealed,'' Sadibou Marong, head of the sub-Saharan Africa office of Reporters Without Borders, told The Associated Press in September.

''Finding reliable and neutral information on government activities has become extremely complex, as has covering security situation in these countries,'' Marong added.