Eleven people were killed on Wednesday in western Niger, a flashpoint for jihadist attacks, when armed men on motorbikes raided three villages near the Malian border, local officials said. "The assailants arrived on several motorbikes at around 5pm. They killed three people at Zibane-Koira Zeno, another at Zibane Koira-Tegui and seven more in Gadabo, with one person wounded," an official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. A source close to one of the village chiefs confirmed the toll from the triple attack, the latest in a string of raids in the poor Sahel state that have claimed more than 300 lives since the start of the year. bh/stb/sba/ri/pma