At least ten soldiers were killed on Friday in an ambush by a "
group of terrorist armed men
" in western Niger, on the border with Mali, the Nigerien Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday.
"
On Friday, February 10, at the end of the morning, a detachment of Operation Almahaou, on patrol in the northern zone of the department of Banibangou fell into a complex ambush by a group of terrorist armed men
", indicates a press release from the ministry. , a term generally used to refer to jihadist groups.
The toll of this attack which took place in the locality of Intagamey could however be much heavier, the ministry evoking "
16 people missing and 13 soldiers injured
".
According to the press release, the soldiers' response and "
the prompt intervention of air vectors
" forced the attackers to retreat "
towards a neighboring country
", probably Mali, located a few kilometers from the attack.
The press release does not specify the number of assailants killed in the response but ensures that the attackers took "
several bodies
" in their retreat.
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Saturday evening, France "
condemned in the strongest terms the attack which left ten dead
".
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed "
its full solidarity with the authorities and the people of Niger
" and stands by their side "
in the fight against terrorism
".
France supports Niger in its operation Almahaou which aims to secure the border with Mali, with 250 soldiers in a "
combat partnership
".
Niger is also one of the options for the redeployment of French special forces, driven out of neighboring Burkina by the ruling junta.
Friday's attack took place in the huge and unstable region of Tillabéri, with an area of 100,000 km2, which is located in the so-called "
three borders
" area on the borders of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. .
The first attacks against the army in this area began in 2010 but intensified in 2017. The authorities launched several large-scale operations there near the border with Mali to fight against jihadists, including Operation Almahaou.
After a few months of calm, eleven civilians were killed in October 2022, during several attacks.
On 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 is in this same region of Tahoua that 141 civilians were massacred on March 21, 2021 by suspected jihadists in several attacks carried out against several villages.
In a previous bulletin dated January 24, the army had judged "
the security situation relatively calm
" and that "
the continuation of its operations had
" made it possible to maintain strong pressure on armed terrorist groups".