Seven policemen and four Nigerien soldiers were killed on Tuesday in two separate attacks, one against a border post between Niger and Burkina Faso, and the other against a military position in the desert north near Libya, announced the government on Wednesday.
“On Tuesday, April 12, as yet unidentified armed bandits carried out two attacks, respectively at the Petelkole border police station in the Tillabéri region (west) and against a position of the Niger National Guard (GNN) located in Djado. , in the region of Agadez”
, in the far north close to Libya, indicates a press release from the Nigerien Ministry of the Interior sent to AFP.
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"The results of the attack on the Petelkole post show seven police officers who fell on the field of honor"
, as well as
"four seriously injured, six slightly injured"
, according to the ministry.
He specifies that
"six vehicles were burned"
, including three belonging to the police, and three other national police vehicles carried away by the attackers.
Several shops and sheds housing businesses in the vicinity of the target post were also
"burned"
, he said.
In the attack on the military position in Djado,
"four Guards fell on the field of honor, another injured and two vehicles carried away"
, according to the ministry which does not give details of this attack.
The ministry ensures that
“Security provisions were immediately reinforced in both areas”.
The Petelkole border post is located in the Tillabéri region, 10 km from the border with Burkina, a neighboring country regularly hit by jihadists.
This post and its surroundings have already been the target of several bloody attacks by suspected jihadists.
On March 16, at least twenty-one people, including two police officers, were killed in an attack by suspected jihadists against a bus and a truck near the post, according to an official report.
In October 2021, three Nigerien police officers were killed there and several others injured and in May 2017, two Nigerien police officers and a civilian were killed in an attack on the same post.
The immense and unstable region of Tillabéri, with an area of 100,000 km2, is located in the so-called
"three borders" zone.
between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali and has been the scene since 2017 of bloody actions by jihadist movements linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group.
Some 12,000 Nigerien soldiers are fighting in a dozen anti-jihadist operations, nearly half of them along the more than 1,400 km of borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum revealed at the end of February, who also announced that he had started discussions with jihadists.
A vast expanse of desert, the Dadjo area is not targeted by jihadists, but is a corridor for the trafficking of migrants, weapons and drugs to neighboring Libya or Europe.
It is also home to artisanal gold sites that attract thousands of Nigeriens and nationals of neighboring countries.
Local authorities recently denounced the
“deterioration of the security situation”
on the main roads where armed gangs operate.
The United States closely monitors this area through a large drone base located in Dirkou.