The post At Least 12 Soldiers Killed in Niger Attacks: Army appeared first on The Defense Post.
]]>In the first attack, in western Tillaberi region on Sunday, “a horde of criminals who arrived in their hundreds” killed five soldiers and wounded 25 more, according to the army.
The ground and air response killed “more than 100 terrorists,” the army said, without giving further details on the attackers.
On Monday, in the restive southwest Diffa region where there are frequent attacks by Boko Haram and the West African branch of the Islamic State group, five patrolling soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device.
A “surgical strike” in retaliation “killed several terrorists” responsible, the army said.
In the latest attack, militants from a new resistance group called the Patriotic Movement for Freedom and Justice (MPLJ) claimed an operation against a military outpost in the Agadez region in the north.
The army said two soldiers were killed and six wounded in Tuesday’s attack.
“A pursuit operation was immediately launched to track down the fleeing assailants who were heading for the Libyan border,” the army added.
The MPLJ claims to have killed 14 soldiers and two gendarmes in the attack, and to have lost two of its own fighters.
Created in August, the MPLJ is an offshoot of the Patriotic Liberation Front (FPL) armed group, which is fighting the junta for the release of ousted president Mohamed Bazoum.
Democratically elected Bazoum was overthrown in a coup in July 2023 and has since then been held at the presidential palace.
While the military justified its power grab by citing the deteriorating security situation, violence persists.
According to the independent Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project, around 1,500 civilians and soldiers in Niger have been killed in jihadist attacks over the past year, compared with 650 between July 2022 and 2023 when Bazoum was in charge.
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]]>The post Germany Ends Military Operations in Junta-Run Niger appeared first on The Defense Post.
]]>At the end of May, Germany and Niger reached an interim agreement allowing the German military to continue operating its airbase in the capital Niamey until the end of August.
But negotiations to extend that agreement broke down, notably because the base’s personnel would no longer benefit from immunity from prosecution.
Senior German and Nigerien military officials read out joint statements announcing the completion of the withdrawal.
“This withdrawal does not mark the end of military cooperation between Niger and Germany, in fact the two sides are committed to maintaining military relations,” they said.
Five cargo planes carrying 60 German troops and 146 tonnes of equipment landed at the Wunsdorf air base around 6:30 pm local time (1630 GMT), where they were met by state secretary for defense Nils Hilmer.
Germany had operated the base in Niger since February 2016 and it once housed some 3,200 personnel.
Niger has been run by a military government since a coup d’etat in July 2023 ousted president Mohamed Bazoum, who has been held as a prisoner ever since.
The regime has turned its back on other Western allies such as France and the United States to turn toward Russia and Iran.
A similar shift has taken place in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which are likewise ruled by military leaders and faced with violence from jihadist groups.
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]]>The post Nigeria, Niger Armies Discuss Security Cooperation appeared first on The Defense Post.
]]>Relations between Nigeria and its northern Sahel neighbor Niger have been tense since the military took over in Niamey in 2023 and broke away from the regional bloc ECOWAS.
Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is head of the Economic Community of West African States, initially took a hardline but has since been trying to persuade the three junta-led states Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso to return to the group.
Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, General Christopher Musa, on Wednesday met in Niamey with General Moussa Salaou Barmou to discuss security cooperation, a Nigerian military statement said.
“Both parties reaffirmed their commitment to resuming and strengthening collaboration, with a view to ensuring regional stability and security,” it said on Thursday.
The statement said Niger’s chief of staff would visit Nigeria to finalize cooperation, and a Niger advisory group would be created to improve communication between the two militaries.
“Niger affirmed its readiness to resume active participation in security cooperation under the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJT),” the statement said.
The task force, involving Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad, has been key in battling jihadists active along the border areas of the four countries.
Niger’s military government is battling jihadists linked to the Islamic State group, Al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram in the western Tillaberi region and in the southeastern Diffa area near Nigeria.
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]]>The post AFRICOM Seeking New Long-Range ISR Drone to Replace MQ-9 Reaper appeared first on The Defense Post.
]]>AFRICOM officials said during a recent defense conference in Washington, DC, that the General Atomics aircraft is now being “legacy-ed out,” thus the need for a more modern aerial system.
They also highlighted the importance of having a long-endurance platform, which should be able to stay in the air “well beyond three days.”
The extended-range version of the MQ-9 Reaper has a flight endurance of 30 hours.
AFRICOM strategic capabilities division chief Fred Gregory said that the changing geopolitical landscape in the region has affected the command’s airborne ISR capabilities.
With its recent withdrawal from Niger, the command reportedly lost some of its key ISR bases in Africa, forcing it to fly from England and Somalia.
“This means we won’t have as much time on station or to react due to the distances,” Gregory explained. “We don’t have a lot of bases, so that’s a challenge as it relates to long dwell and endurance, as they (Reapers) are usually pretty big aircraft.”
Without a suitable replacement, Gregory warned that AFRICOM’s airborne ISR capabilities in the region will have eroded by 2026.
“We won’t have [any airborne] ISR access,” he stressed.
Pentagon Undersecretary for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu said that funding and investments are already in place for long-endurance drones.
Without providing specific details, she revealed that the defense department already tested an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can loiter for “seven to eight days.”
The Pentagon has also reportedly been collaborating with the defense industry for solar-powered, stratospheric UAVs.
In July, the US Air Force announced that its ULTRA reconnaissance drone flew for three days straight during a recent trial.
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]]>The post Benin at Crossroads: Urgent Measures Needed to Combat Rising Terrorism appeared first on The Defense Post.
]]>Benin, which only recorded its first incident of extremist violence in 2019, is among the continent’s countries being increasingly impacted by terrorism. The number of recorded attacks has risen year-on-year since, reaching 20 incidents in 2022 before doubling last year. The Beninese military labeled 2023’s drastic uptick as “the sharpest rise in extremist attacks in Africa.”
An overwhelming share of this activity has occurred in the Park W-Arly-Pendjari Complex, a vast 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of land that makes up West Africa’s largest protected wilderness.
The sheer size of this area, alongside its location on the periphery of one of the world’s most violent regions, means Benin has struggled to halt the growing presence of Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), and to a lesser extent Islamic State-Sahel.
Evidence of JNIM’s growing presence in Benin is also visible in the country’s increasing rate of kidnappings.
Last year saw northern Benin record at least 75 kidnapping (or attempted kidnapping) incidents, just over triple the number recorded in 2022, which itself witnessed a total higher than the combined number of recorded cases nationwide between 2016 and 2021.
The implications are grave, with kidnappings serving as one of the initial tactics violent extremist organizations frequently deploy to assert presence. Indeed, both JNIM and Islamic State-Sahel typically begin their encroachment into fresh territory by forging alliances with local actors. However, for those less willing to cooperate, methods designed to coerce and intimidate, such as kidnappings, will be used.
This is because they can provide much-needed intel on the local terrain, strike fear into local communities, and announce the presence of an extremist organization as a legitimate violent actor, as well as an additional source of income.
Perhaps most importantly, kidnappings help gradually erode the belief that the state is the primary security provider.
JNIM has found success in northern Benin over recent years, but this says as much about the group’s capabilities as it does about some of the Beninese government policies. JNIM’s expansion would have been far more difficult without the pre-existing grievances in the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex and surrounding areas.
A series of land reforms and sedentarization laws aimed at modernizing its agro-pastoral industry and conserving the local ecosystem, as well as the closure of the Park Complex to the public after two French tourists were kidnapped several years ago, have all been accused of exacerbating farmer and pastoral grievances and conflicts.
JNIM has been able to leverage some of these frustrations to expand deeper into the Park Complex, in turn allowing it to become an increasingly dominant actor in Benin.
Underscoring this notion is a recent study carried out in the Atakora Department, which houses the Pendjari National Park and the largest section of Benin’s border with Burkina Faso. Fieldwork found that 20 percent of participants personally knew someone who had joined JNIM, while 45 percent reported seeing JNIM in their community, and 30 percent had personally interacted with JNIM militants.
Benin now finds itself at a crossroads, although there are several steps the country should take to try to tackle the growing threat posed by violent extremist organizations in its territory.
In the Park W-Arly-Pendjari Complex, the government should better address the socio-economic pressures facing farmer and pastoralist communities, even if it comes at a slight environmental cost.
This can be done by declassifying segments of the park’s buffer zones for these communities to use, which would likely alleviate overall levels of conflict and competition.
While this could be a short-term solution, a comprehensive strategy aimed at providing sustainable economic opportunities to the affected areas in northern Benin should also be considered.
Benin must also increase military cooperation with Burkina Faso and Niger, the latter of whom the country is currently embroiled in a lengthy diplomatic spat with. With their relationship fraught and Niger facing its own issues with violent extremist organizations, Niamey is unlikely to prioritize terrorist activity near its border with Benin.
This fallout does not only rule out military assistance and cooperation, it has also meant that Niger has kept its side of the border closed for almost a year now. Until reopened, local communities in northern Benin that once relied on cross-border trade will continue to be negatively impacted, further creating socio-economic conditions that are conducive to violent extremists.
While facing its own extensive issues with extremism, Nigeria will be concerned that JNIM militants from the Sahel have transited through Benin and settled in the western Kainji Lake National Park. The threat here is relatively nascent compared to elsewhere in Nigeria, meaning Abuja potentially has a window of opportunity to combat JNIM before it morphs into a far larger threat.
To do so, it will need to cooperate intensely with Benin, and even shoulder more of the burden in attempting to tackle this cross-border threat. Indeed, there is evidence that bandits from Nigeria are now crossing into JNIM-held zones in Benin, underscoring how failing to address this issue will benefit extremist groups traditionally found on opposite sides of the shared border.
Nigeria has ample experience combatting such groups, even if its success in doing so is limited, meaning it must share its experience and knowledge with Benin to implement an effective counter-terrorism strategy that can address all facets of the insecurity multiplying across their shared border.
Finally, the Western community should play a more proactive role in helping Benin.
This should be done via a mixture of civilian and military initiatives. While improving the capacities and size of the Beninese security apparatus will be helpful in fighting extremist groups, providing an outlet for disenfranchised members to leave their groups will be equally productive in the long run.
The US and EU should set up and sponsor disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs immediately, as they do elsewhere in the region.
The fate of Benin remains unclear, although it is evident that if trends of the past few years are allowed to progress at their current rates, the country will likely suffer a similar fate as some of its West African peers — many of whom contain some of the highest levels of terrorism and violence in the world.
Charlie Werb is an analyst, writer, and commentator focussing on sub-Saharan African security issues, with a particular emphasis on Islamist extremist groups in the region.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Defense Post.
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]]>The post Niger Says at Least 15 Soldiers Killed Near Burkina Border appeared first on The Defense Post.
]]>“On Monday July 22, a unit of the defense and security forces exchanged fire with armed terrorist groups along the Bankilare-Tera route near the village of Foneko,” it said in a communique read on state television, announcing a “preliminary toll” of 15 dead.
The ministry also said three soldiers were missing, with 16 injured and hospitalized, adding that 21 “terrorists” had been killed in the clashes in the western region of Tillaberi.
The ministry went on to say the “prompt intervention of reinforcements from Tera” had forced the armed groups to retreat to the north.
The attack came almost exactly a year after a military coup which the army justified by the country’s deteriorating security situation.
Twelve months on, armed groups notably from Islamic State and others loyal to Al-Qaeda, have continued to carry out attacks in the Tillaberi region, with bloody clashes over recent weeks leaving dozens dead on both sides.
Despite a large-scale rollout of troops and a junta promise to quadruple military numbers by 2030, civilians have also not been spared by the unrest — though victim tolls remain imprecise amid scant independent data.
Tera is an intersection point for the thousands of cargo trucks arriving each month from the port of Lome, in Togo, via northern Burkina Faso. The lorries are escorted by troops from both neighboring states.
Four weeks ago, 20 soldiers and one civilian were killed in the same region in an attack by armed groups. The army said it had killed “more than 100 terrorists” in response.
Earlier this month, seven civilians were killed in the nearby village of Dosso Kouregou.
Niger is also having to contend with violence in its southeast from Boko Haram and Islamic State’s West African offshoot.
Military leader General Abdourahamane Tiani meanwhile has declared Friday an official holiday to mark a year since the overthrow of elected President Mohamed Bazoum.
Since taking over, the junta has totally reset its international partnerships, asking former colonial power France late last year to withdraw its troops that had been combatting jihadist groups in the Sahel nation.
By mid-September, a US contingent is also due to pull out of an important drone base at Agadez in the north.
Instead, Niamey has been fostering closer links to Iran, Turkey, and Russia.
Russia notably sent military instructors to Niger in April and May.
On a regional level, Niger has engaged in rapprochement with Burkina Faso and Mali, likewise ruled by military juntas after recent coups.
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]]>The post Germany Says Not Possible to Continue Military Cooperation With Niger appeared first on The Defense Post.
]]>Germany already announced on July 6 that it will end operations at its airbase in Niger and pull out its remaining three-dozen troops by August 31.
“It was not possible to continue because the trust that existed before was no longer there,” Baerbock said during a visit to nearby Ivory Coast.
“At the same time, we have not stopped humanitarian aid because the people of Niger are not responsible for what happened,” she said during a joint press conference with Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara.
Niger has been run by a military regime since a coup d’etat in July 2023 ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been held as a prisoner ever since.
The regime has turned its back on other Western allies such as France and the United States to sidle toward Russia.
At the end of May, Germany and Niger reached an interim agreement allowing the German military to continue operating its airbase in the capital Niamey until the end of August.
But negotiations to extend that agreement broke down, notably because the base’s personnel would no longer benefit from immunity from prosecution.
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]]>The post Scores of Boko Haram Fighters Surrender: African Force appeared first on The Defense Post.
]]>The Mixed Multinational Force was created in 1994 to combat cross-border crime, but its mandate was extended to include fighting Boko Haram, whose armed campaigns have spread from their Nigerian base to the three neighboring countries.
They are “14 men, 23 women, and 32 children”, said Lieutenant-Colonel Abubakar Abdullahi, the MMF’s military information spokesman.
“Wives are considered terrorists because they are used for suicide attacks,” he said.
A Boko Haram fighter who had escaped from a camp in Libye Soroa, Niger, surrendered to the MMF on July 1 and handed over “an AK-47 rifle, four magazines and a large quantity of ammunition,” the international force said in a statement.
Fifty-six other people — 13 male members of Boko Haram, accompanied by their wives and children — surrendered following a “maritime operation by Cameroonian and Nigerian forces” on July 6 in Cameroon’s Far North, according to the same source.
On the same day, “12 members of terrorist families – five women and seven children – were rescued”, the statement added.
The MMF, which comprises the armed forces of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, also called on Boko Haram fighters to “lay down their arms and surrender to the authorities in order to establish lasting peace in the Lake Chad Basin region.”
These surrenders come at a time when an operation dubbed “Lake Sanity II” is under way.
The MFF’s objective is to track down, capture or neutralize members of Boko Haram based in the Lake Chad region, destroy their camps, and seize their weapons.
Launched in April, it is due to end on 24 July.
At the beginning of July, the regional military alliance announced the death of 70 jihadists in the Lake Chad area, which straddles Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad, during a military offensive.
The jihadist conflict began in 2009 in north-east Nigeria with Boko Haram, then with the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), and has left 40,000 people dead and around 2 million displaced in Nigeria.
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]]>The post US Troops Leave Niger Base at Niamey appeared first on The Defense Post.
]]>Niger’s military leaders scrapped a military cooperation deal with Washington in March after seizing power in a July 2023 coup.
The United States had around 650 soldiers in Niger as part of anti-jihadist missions in several Sahel nations of West Africa, including a major drone base near Agadez.
“The defence ministry of Niger and the US Defence Department announce that the withdrawal of American forces and equipment from the Niamey base 101 is now completed,” the two countries said in a statement.
A final flight carrying US troops was due to leave Niamey late Sunday.
The US presence had stood at around 950 troops, and 766 soldiers have left Niger since the military ordered their departure, AFP learned at a ceremony at the base attended by Niger’s army chief of staff Maman Sani Kiaou and US General Kenneth Ekman.
“American forces are now going to focus on quitting airbase 201 in Agadez,” the statement said, insisting that the withdrawal would be completed by September 15 as planned.
Niger had already ordered the withdrawal of troops from France, the former colonial power and traditional security ally, and has strengthened ties with Russia which has provided instructors and equipment.
On Saturday, Germany’s defense ministry also said it would end operations at its airbase in Niger by August 31 following the breakdown of talks with military leaders.
A similar shift has taken place in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which are also ruled by military leaders and faced with violence from jihadist groups.
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]]>The post Niger Army Says More Than 100 ‘Terrorists’ Killed After Deadly Attack appeared first on The Defense Post.
]]>A coalition of armed groups killed 20 troops and one civilian in the region of Tera in jihadist-plagued western Niger on June 25, the army said.
“More than 100 terrorists have been killed since,” the army said in its latest bulletin, adding its operations were ongoing.
The army had said in its previous bulletin that it had killed around 30 “terrorists” in the region the day after the Tera attack and had “destroyed their means of war” in an air raid.
Tera lies in the Tillaberi region bordering Mali and Burkina Faso where rebels linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have waged a bloody insurgency for almost a decade.
Civilians are frequently targeted in the area by jihadists, prompting many people to flee their homes.
Freight trucks from Niger also pass through Tera, arriving every month from the Togolese port of Lome, via northern Burkina Faso.
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