Sunday's attacks by gunmen in villages in Niger's Tahoua region left 137 people dead, the government said Monday, in a massacre that has underscored the huge security challenges facing new President Mohamed Bazoum. "In treating civilian populations systematically as targets now, these armed bandits have gone a step further into horror and brutality," government spokesman Zakaria Abdourahamane said in a statement read on public television. bh-stb/kjl/pvh