Niger’s Ministry of Defence has reported that at least 17 Niger soldiers have been killed in an attack by armed groups near the border with Mali.
In a statement released on Tuesday, It was stated that “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]”.
The statement said that another 20 soldiers had been injured, with all of them evacuated to the capital city, Niamey.
“More than 100 assailants were neutralised during their retreat,” the army said.
In the past ten years, the Sahel region’s focus of conflict between armed groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), has been the border region where central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, and western Niger meet.
