Thu 16 May 2019:
At least 17 soldiers killed and 11 others missing near the Malian border, according to government spokesperson. Armed men have killed at least 17 troops in an ambush near the Malian border in Niger, where several armed groups are active, while 11 other soldiers have been missing.
The attack took place on Tuesday near the town of Tongo Tongo, where fighters from an affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) killed four US special troops and as many Nigerien soldiers in an ambush in October 2017, government spokesperson Abdourahamane Zakaria told Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
Zakaria did not identify the perpetrators of the attack, which is one of the deadliest against the military in Niger’s recent years. Fighters, including affiliates of al-Qaeda and ISIL, have stepped up attacks on military and civilian targets across West Africa’s Sahel region this year. The border areas, where Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali meet, are especially dangerous and violence is worsening across the region.
Attackers killed at least 10 in apparently sectarian attacks on churches in neighbouring Burkina Faso this week. Niger also faces a threat in its southeast from Boko Haram and a splinter group affiliated with ISIL, which are both based in Nigeria but frequently attack in neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
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