More than a dozen Niger soldiers killed near Mali border

Atleast 17 Niger soldiers have been killed in an attack by armed groups near the border with Mali, the country’s Ministry of Defence said.

According to a statement released on Tuesday(16 August), “a detachment of the Nigerien Armed Forces (FAN) moving between Boni and Torodi was the victim of a terrorist ambush near the town of Koutougou [52km southwest of Torodi]”.

At that time another 20 soldiers had been injured, with all of them evacuated to Niamey, the capital.

Meanwhile more than 100 assailants were “neutralised” during their retreat, the army said.

In the last decade, the border area where central Mali, northern Burkina Faso and western Niger converge has turned the the epicentre of violence by armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) in the Sahel region.

Since 2020 anger at the bloodshed has fuelled military takeovers in all three countries. Even with Niger the latest to fall to a coup on July 26 when President Mohamed Bazoum was removed.

Southeast Niger is also the target of armed groups crossing from northeastern Nigeria – the cradle of a campaign initiated by Boko Haram in 2010.

Meanwhile the coup leaders had said Bazoum’s ouster was due to the insecurity in the country was “due to the deteriorating security situation and bad governance”.

Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from Abuja in nearby Nigeria, said the Nigerien military government’s revoking of agreements with French military and suspension of aid by Niamey’s other partners “makes life more difficult”.