Niger: 17 soldiers killed by terrorists near the border with Burkina Faso
According to a press release from Niger’s Ministry of Defence, an attack by jihadist groups killed 17 and wounded 20 members of the national armed forces in the Tillabéri region, specifically in Koutougou, a town close to the border with Burkina Faso.
In the early afternoon of Tuesday 15 August, «a detachment of the Nigerien Armed Forces (FAN) on the move between Boni and Torodi fell victim to a terrorist ambush on the outskirts of the locality of Koutougou», the ministry announced.
The «provisional toll» is 17 soldiers killed and 20 wounded, including six seriously, «all evacuated to Niamey», the memo said, adding that a «combing operation is still under way».
On the enemy side, the Ministry of Defence reports having decimated «two columns of more than fifty motorbikes each (…), i.e. more than a hundred terrorists neutralised during their withdrawal».
This news illustrates once again the cowardice shown by political decision-makers in the ECOWAS region in the crisis in Niger.
Niger and the whole of the Sahel have been invaded by terrorist groups for several years.
But ECOWAS has never shown a firm resolve to define a strategy for coordinating action between armies to combat the scourge.
Yet it has been holding extraordinary summits on Niger for the past three weeks, threatening to step on the corpses of the poor people with imminent military intervention to restore constitutional order.
This umpteenth jihadist groups attack raises questions about the institution’s mission towards its citizens and the values it claims to defend.
Do we really have an ECOWAS of the peoples, or is it simply a contraption that obeys the finger and eye of the former colonial powers?
Doesn’t the terrorism prevalent in the sub-region benefit certain leaders in the region who keep it alive for their own selfish interests?
We will come back to this
Neil Camara
Read again: Burkina Faso: Corruption and insecurity are going hand in hand. Its time to break up this relationship
