This Thursday morning, September 28, a serious jihadist attack occurred in Niger in the Tri-Border Zone. An army stronghold near Kandaji, where a hydroelectric power station is currently being built, was attacked. There is currently no official number, but the figure of a dozen soldiers killed is circulating.
Published on: 09/28/2023 – 11:58 p.m
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According to witnesses contacted by RFI, several dozen attackers on motorcycles and cars carried out the attack on this army position, which, according to a security source, led to heavy fighting until the arrival of helicopters scared away the jihadists.
Reinforcements were sent to the area and pursuits were launched as far as Tamalate, a village on the Malian side of the border that has been controlled by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) group since March 2022.
This fort was built to ensure security the construction site of the Kandaji Damon the Niger River, which would later become the country’s most important dam, but whose work was stopped due to the cessation of international funding.
Security sources are concerned that the EIGS, which has recently expanded the areas it controls in Mali, wants to open a new front on the Niger side. Especially since several elite anti-terror units, including hundreds of special forces trained to combat jihadists, were recalled to Niamey for two months to protect the coup plotters.