By Boureima Balima
(Reuters) – Twelve Nigerien troopers have been killed in an assault within the west of the Sahel nation and two suspects have been arrested, the military mentioned in an announcement seen by Reuters on Saturday.
The assault befell on Friday close to the tri-border area of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, epicentre of a jihadist insurgency in West Africa linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.
Armed males on Friday launched a “shock offensive” on a army unit out on a mission about 10 km (six miles) north of the village of Sakoira, the assertion mentioned, referring to the assailants as terrorists.
It didn’t elaborate on the seemingly id of the assailants however final month Niger blamed the EIGS group, an Islamic State affiliate, for an assault on a mosque close to the tri-border space during which no less than 44 civilians had been killed.
The Sahel insurgency spun out of a Tuareg riot in northern Mali in 2012 and later unfold into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger earlier than reaching the north of coastal West African international locations comparable to Benin.
A whole bunch of hundreds have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced as militants have gained floor, attacking villages, army and police posts and armed forces convoys.
The failure of governments to revive safety contributed to 2 coups in Mali, two in Burkina Faso and one in Niger between 2020 and 2023. All three stay beneath army rule regardless of regional and worldwide stress to carry elections.
Navy authorities reduce ties with conventional Western allies comparable to France and the U.S. after the coups and turned to Russia to assist in combating jihadist exercise.
(Reporting by Boureima Balima; Writing by Portia Crowe; Modifying by Gareth Jones)
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