At least seventeen Nigerien soldiers were killed and twenty others injured in an attack by suspected jihadists on Tuesday, August 15, near the border between Niger and Burkina Faso, announced the ministry of defense set up by the putschists. On Tuesday afternoon, “a detachment of the Nigerien Armed Forces (FAN) moving between Boni and Torodi was the victim of a terrorist ambush near the town of Koutougou”, according to a press release published late Tuesday evening.
“The provisional toll” is seventeen soldiers killed and twenty wounded, including six seriously, “all evacuated to Niamey”, he adds, specifying that a “mopping-up operation [was] still in progress”. The army claims that, on the side of the attackers, “two columns of more than fifty motorcycles each” were “destroyed, that is to say more than a hundred terrorists neutralized during their withdrawal”.
The locality of Koutougou is very close to the border of Burkina Faso, in the region of Tillabéri (South-West). It is the deadliest known attack since the July 26 coup in Niger that overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum. The soldiers who took power, led by General Abdourahamane Tiani, had mainly put forward “the deterioration of the security situation” to justify their coup.
New ECOWAS meeting on Thursday
This new attack comes before a crucial West African military meeting scheduled for Thursday, which must study the modalities of a possible armed intervention to restore constitutional order in the country. If the military option remains on the table in order to restore the ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, to his functions, the path of dialogue and diplomacy with the military regime in power in Niamey nevertheless seems privileged.
Thursday and Friday, members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are to meet in Accra, Ghana, to discuss the details of such an operation. Calls for a peaceful resolution to this crisis have multiplied in recent days, including from certain Western partners such as the United States. “We remain focused on the diplomatic route to achieve (…) the return to constitutional order, and I believe that there continues to be scope to achieve this result through diplomacy,” said the head of diplomacy on Tuesday. American, Antony Blinken.
Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Malian counterpart, Assimi Goïta, had also underlined during a telephone conversation “the importance of resolving the situation” in Niger “only by peaceful politico-diplomatic means. “. And the new Nigerien regime is also looking for allies in the region.
“Transition Process”
On Tuesday, the prime minister appointed by the military in Niamey, Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine, traveled to N’Djamena where he was received by the Chadian transitional president, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno. Expressing his “brotherhood”, on behalf of the new strongman of Niamey, General Abdourahamane Tiani, he wished to “renew the feeling of good neighbourliness” between the two countries, insisting however on the “independence” of Niger. For the first time, he declared that his country was “in a process of transition”, without however specifying the duration before possible elections for a return to constitutional order.
Chad, a major military power in the Sahel region, said last week that it would not participate in any military intervention alongside ECOWAS, to which it does not belong. Neighboring Mali and Burkina, also led by soldiers who came to power through coups in 2020 and 2022, quickly showed their solidarity with the generals in Niamey. The latter remain inflexible for the time being and have been holding the deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum, prisoner since July 26. They believe that a military operation against their country would be an “illegal and senseless aggression” and have promised an “immediate response” to any aggression.
The Tillabéri region, located in the so-called “three borders” area between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, is a haven for Sahelian jihadists, including those of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS). For years, this part of Niger has been regularly targeted by attacks from these armed groups despite the massive deployment of anti-jihadist forces. Before the coup, France, a former colonial power which has 1,500 soldiers in Niger, actively participated with the Nigerien army in the fight against these jihadist groups. The new military regime in Niamey has taken France as its main target, accusing it of wanting to intervene militarily to restore President Bazoum to his duties.
