According to the defense ministry, suspected jihadists near the country’s western border with Mali killed seventeen Niger troops on Tuesday in an ambush.
A military unit was “the victim of a terrorist ambush near the town of Koutougou,” according to a ministry statement issued late Tuesday.
It went on to say that another 20 troops had been injured, six of them critically, and that all of the casualties had been transported to Niamey, the capital.
According to the army, more than 100 insurgents were “neutralised” during their retreat.
For more than a decade, a jihadist insurgency has wracked Africa’s Sahel region, beginning in northern Mali in 2012 and extending to neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
The so-called “three borders” area between the three nations is frequently the target of attacks by Islamic State and Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants.
Thousands of military, police officials, and civilians have been slain in the region’s instability, and millions have been forced to abandon their homes.
Anger over the killing has fueled military takeovers in all three nations since 2020, with Niger being the most recent, with President Mohamed Bazoum deposed on July 26.
Niger is also dealing with a jihadist insurgency in the southeast, with terrorists infiltrating from northeastern Nigeria, the birthplace of Boko Haram’s 2010 assault.
AFP