Niger’s defence ministry announced on Friday that its troops killed 79 “terrorists” during operations last week, which included a foray into neighbouring Mali. The army’s anti‑jihadist Almahaou unit launched the search after an “armed terrorist group” attacked the western town of Tiloa on March 10, the ministry said. The operation followed the killing of at least 17 Nigerien soldiers last month in Intagamey, another town in the vast western Tillaberi region, which is currently under a state of emergency because of jihadist attacks.
The pursuit, carried out by air and land forces, pushed into the Hamakat area of Mali, identified as the hideout of the alleged perpetrator of the February 10 attack, the ministry added. A security source contacted by AFP described the extension of the operation into Mali as “unprecedented”. The ministry reported no military casualties during the operation.
The attacks reported by the army occurred in Tillaberi, a region that borders both Burkina Faso and Mali—countries that have been plagued by jihadist insurgency. Since 2017, the area has suffered repeated assaults by armed groups linked to Al‑Qaeda and the Islamic State network. In early March, Niger’s armed forces chief of staff, General Salifou Mody, was received in Bamako by Mali’s junta leader, Colonel Assimi Goïta. Niger said the two sides discussed cooperation on security along their more than 800 kilometre (500‑mile) shared border.
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