Security forces attacked near Niger-Mali border

Military operations were under way near Niger’s border with Mali yesterday, a day after an attack by unidentified assailants that killed three members of the US army special forces and five soldiers from Niger, security sources said.

The attack, in which two US soldiers were wounded, occurred during a routine patrol in a part of south-west Niger where there are known to be insurgents, including members of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb.

Nigerien, American and French troops were conducting military operations in the zone yesterday, a Nigerien security source said.

An official at Mali’s defence ministry said military operations were taking place in Niger and that Malian forces had reinforced their checkpoints along the border. According to a Nigerien diplomatic source, those who carried out Wednesday’s attack came from Mali.

Extremist groups form part of a growing regional insurgency in the poor, sparsely populated deserts of West Africa’s Sahel. They have stepped up attacks on United Nations peacekeepers, Malian soldiers and civilian targets after being driven back in northern Mali by a French-led military intervention in 2013.

Malian militant groups have expanded their reach into neighbouring countries, including Niger, where a series of attacks by armed groups led the government in March to declare a state of emergency in the south-west.

A group calling itself Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has claimed recent attacks.