Eight gendarmes were killed on Tuesday June 14 and thirty-three injured during an attack “terrorist” in Waraou, a locality located in the department of Gothèye (south-west) near Burkina, said the Nigerien government.
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“This day Tuesday, June 14, 2022 around 5:30 a.m. local (04:30 GMT)the National Gendarmerie detachment of Waraou (…) was attacked by armed terrorist groups riding dozens of motorcycles and vehicles”, underlines a press release from the Nigerien Ministry of Defense sent to AFP. According to a provisional report, eight gendarmes died, thirty-three were injured, six of them seriously. About fifty “terrorists” were killed.
According to the ministry, this attack targeted elements of the gendarmerie “on a mission to secure the surrounding villages” of Waraou, located not far from Burkina. “The energetic reaction of the elements of the detachment with the ground and air reinforcement both national and that of the partners made it possible to rout the enemy”, continues the press release. Five cars and a truck from the Nigerien forces were “destroyed” during the fighting, he adds, adding that search operations are continuing.
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Seven agents, members of the national electoral commission (CENI), were killed in February 2021 when their vehicle ran over a mine in Waraou. The department of Gothèye is located in the region of Tillabéri, which is in the so-called “three borders” zone between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, which has become a haven for Sahelian jihadists, including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. (EIGS).
Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum has initiated a new approach in recent months, that of dialogue with jihadists, in an attempt to find peace. But the military response continues since some 12,000 Nigerien soldiers are fighting in a dozen anti-jihadist operations, almost half of them along the more than 1,400 km of borders with Mali and Burkina Faso.