Tchin Tabaraden Massacre

   Among the Tuareg, this term literally means "the valley of young girls." It is an arrondissement in the Tahoua département and rangeland of the Kel Dennek nomads. Since the 1980s, the Niger armed forces had been the focus of Tuareg assaults in Tchin Tabaraden. In 1991, the village was attacked by the government forces, and afterward the Niger military forces led mass reprisals on the Tuareg civilian population of the area, brutalizing and humiliating it. The extent of the massacre is unknown: figures range from 63 according to the government through 600 to 700 estimated by humanitarian organizations to 1,500 advanced by the Tuareg. This event ushered in the Tuareg Rebellion in Niger, which lasted until 1995.