Four Nigerien soldiers and sixty-three "terrorists" were killed Thursday in fighting between the army and "heavily armed" men in the Tillabéri region (west), near Mali, a government statement said Friday evening. “At around 3.30 pm, elements of the Nigerian Armed Forces (FAN) clashed with a group of heavily armed terrorists in several vehicles and around 50 motorbikes. The provisional assessment is as follows: friend side, four dead and nineteen injured. On the enemy side, 63 terrorists neutralized (killed) " , according to a press release from the Nigerian Ministry of Defense read on public television.
"After a fierce battle" , the soldiers, "on a mission as part of the Almahaou (anti-terrorist) operation (which means Tourbillon in local language) " put the attackers "on the run" and recovered dozens of motorcycles , weapons and various materials belonging to the attackers, according to the text which specifies that the combats took place "in Tamalaoulaou in the department of Abala in the region of Tillabéri" . Mop-up operations "have been started" and "are currently underway," he said.
Read also: The Algerian situation increases uncertainty in Niger
The Tillabéri region is located in the area of the three Niger-Mali-Burkina borders. The circulation of motorcycles has been banned there day and night since January to control the incursions of jihadists generally operating on two-wheelers. According to an official report, 174 soldiers were killed in three attacks in this area in January and December, including that of Chinégodar with 89 dead (January 8, 2020) and that of Inates with 71 dead (December 10, 2019). These attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group.
The entire Sahel is affected by jihadist violence - often intermingled with inter-community conflicts -, which left 4,000 dead in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in 2019, according to the UN
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KEJKPQHVMJAPJONPEDK42JL56U.jpg)
