The attack occurred in the immense and unstable region of Tillabéri, in the so -called “three borders” area on the borders of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
At least ten soldiers were killed on Friday February 10 during an ambush in western Niger, on the border with Mali, the Nigerian Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday. “A detachment from the Almahaou Operation on patrol in the northern area of the Banibangou department fell into an ambush of terrorist armed men,” said a statement from the ministry, a term generally used to designate jihadist groups. The results of this attack in the locality of Intagamey could be much heavier, the ministry evoking “sixteen disappeared and thirteen injured soldiers”.
The support of 250 French soldiers
According to the press release, the soldiers’ response and “the prompt intervention of air vectors” forced the attackers to withdraw “to a neighboring country”, probably Mali, located a few kilometers from the attack. The press release does not specify the number of attackers killed in the response.
The attack occurred in the immense and unstable region of Tillabéri, with an area of 100,000 km 2 in the so -called “of the three borders” on the borders of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. The first attacks on the army in this area began in 2010 but intensified in 2017. The authorities launched several vast operations near the border with Mali to fight against the jihadists. They receive support, as part of a recent “combat partnership”, of 250 French soldiers. After a few months of lull, eleven civilians had been killed in October 2022, during several attacks.
Wednesday, nine people were killed in an attack by “heavily armed terrorists” against a Malian refugee site in the Tahoua region, still in the same area. It was in this same region of Tahoua that 141 civilians had been massacred on March 21, 2021 by alleged jihadists in several attacks against several villages.