According to the defense ministry, 17 Niger troops were killed on Tuesday in an ambush by militants close to the nation’s western border with Mali.
An army detachment was “the victim of a terrorist ambush near the town of Koutougou,” said a ministry statement published late Tuesday.
It added that another 20 soldiers had been wounded, six seriously, with all the casualties evacuated to the capital Niamey.
More than 100 assailants were “neutralised” during their retreat, the army said.
A jihadist insurgency has plagued Africa’s Sahel region for more than a decade, breaking out in northern Mali in 2012 before spreading to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
The so-called “three borders” area between the three countries is regularly the scene of attacks by rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda.
Thousands of soldiers, police officers, and civilians have been slain in the region’s instability, and millions of people have been forced to evacuate their homes.
Since 2020, military coups have taken place in all three nations as a result of anger over the bloodshed, with Niger becoming the most recent victim on July 26 when President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown.
In addition, terrorists entering into Niger from northeastern Nigeria, the origin of a campaign started by Boko Haram in 2010, are waging a jihadist insurgency in the country’s southeast.
