Gunmen kill 15 troopers in assault in southwest Niger

Unidentified gunmen killed 15 troopers and wounded 4 extra on Tuesday in an assault on a military put up in southwest Niger, the ministry of defence stated on Wednesday.
The assault in north Tillabery area, which borders Mali and Burkina Faso, got here two days after gunmen killed 16 troopers within the close by Tahoua area of the West African nation. The troopers had been a part of a particular anti-jihadist pressure known as Operation Almahaou, stated Niger’s defence minister in an announcement.
They had been attacked on Tuesday afternoon by closely armed males on bikes, whom he described as “terrorists”.Several of the assailants had been additionally killed in fight, whereas others retreated towards the north and are being pursued, stated the assertion.

The space is overrun by jihadist teams with hyperlinks to al Qaeda and Islamic State, who’ve killed lots of of troopers and civilians since 2018 after they started broadening their attain past bases in Mali.

The scale of the violence this yr has known as into query claims of progress within the battle towards Islamist militants by governments in West Africa’s Sahel area and former colonial energy France, which has 5,000 troops there to help them.