ECOWAS will create a force to restore order in Niger..
Top officials are meeting on Thursday and Friday while terrorists killed 17 soldiers in an ambush..
On Tuesday, a terrorist attack near Koutougou targeted an army unit, according to Niger’s defense ministry..
Twenty additional troops were injured, six of them badly, in the most devastating casualties since the July 26 coup.
Africa’s Sahel area has had jihadist insurgencies for almost 10 years, starting in northern Mali in 2012 and spreading to Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015..
Extremists often attack the “three borders” region between the countries..
Thousands of military, police officials, and civilians have been slain in the region’s instability, and millions have been forced to abandon their homes.
Since 2020, anger over the killings has fueled military coups in all three nations.