The Islamic State group used its Amaq news agency on Saturday to claim responsibility for a deadly ambush on a military convoy in Niger. The Nigerian military confirmed that 23 soldiers were killed and 17 injured in the attack.
Niger Ministry of Defense Said Thirty militants were killed in the fighting near Tegui, a town in Niger’s Tillaberi region.
Ministry of Defense Said The army was conducting a security sweep along the border with Burkina Faso and Mali when it came under a “complex ambush” by more than 100 terrorists armed with “homemade bombs and suicide vehicles.”
The security sweep was needed to “reassure local residents” after armed extremist groups in the area targeted them for “murder, extortion and cattle rustling”. Al Qaeda and Islamic State terrorists have been infesting Niger’s Tillabéri region since 2017.
Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have all staged military coups in the past few years, driven in part by public dissatisfaction with their governments’ inability to protect their countries from ISIS and other extremists. The coup left all three countries exiled Attacks from both the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Western governments have only made both countries more unstable and dangerous.
On Saturday, Niger’s military government announced It would end a 2012 agreement with the United States to operate a $100 million anti-terrorism drone base in the north of the country.
“Taking into account the aspirations and interests of its people, the government of Niger is immediately canceling the agreement regarding the status of U.S. military personnel and civilian employees of the Department of Defense,” military junta spokesman Major Amadou Abdramane declared.
Abdullahmane suggested that the government is dissatisfied with the US criticism of the junta expressed by a high-level US delegation in early March and the junta’s ineffective anti-terrorism measures.
He continued:
Niger deplores the intent of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerian people the right to choose partners and partnerships that can truly support the fight against terrorism. The Nigerien government strongly condemned the condescending attitude by the head of the American delegation, accompanied by threats of retaliation.
The March delegation’s participation marked the third time since the July 2023 coup that the Biden administration has sought to pressure Niger to restore civilian rule in exchange for anti-terrorism aid.
The military junta has declared the US military presence in Niger “unlawful,” but the Biden administration on Friday only described the political situation as “dynamic” and is in talks behind closed doors to maintain the US military presence in the country. said it is still in progress.
One U.S. official described Abdulrahman’s hostile comments as “a fit of anger after we expressed deep concerns last week about the direction they were taking on a number of fronts.”of washington post Quote Regional analysts said that although Niger appears to be distancing itself from the United States and leaning toward Iran and Russia, neither has major concerns about whether Niger will hold another democratic election. This was the restructuring Mr Abdullahmane alluded to when he argued that the government had “the right to choose the partners and the type of partnership”.
of washington post The Biden team said it was privately concerned that Niger would begin selling uranium to Iran “crossing the red line as determined by Washington.”
