In the latest assault on Niger forces, at least 17 soldiers were killed leaving 20 others injured as they were ambushed by militias, months after the country's military leaders took power, confining the President-elect Mohammad Bazoum, deepening security woes for the region.
According to the defence ministry of Niger, an army detachment was the victim of a terrorist ambush near the town of Koutougou in the Tillaberi region near Burkina Faso Tuesday.
Among the injured, six were in critical condition marking it heaviest damage to the military since it controlled Naimey after July 26.
The army said: "More than 100 of the assailants were "neutralised" during their retreat on motorbikes."
Militant insurgencies have plagued Africa's Sahel region for more than a decade, breaking out in northern Mali in 2012 before spreading to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
The so-called "three borders" area between the three countries is regularly the scene of attacks by rebels affiliated with Daesg and Al-Qaeda.
The unrest across the region has killed thousands of troops, police officers and civilians and forced millions to flee their homes.
Anger at the bloodshed has fuelled military coups in all three countries since 2020, with Niger the latest to fall when its elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, was ousted on July 26.
Alarmed by the cascade of takeovers, the West African bloc Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has warned of possible military intervention to reinstall Bazoum, who is being held in the presidential compound in Niamey.
Military chiefs of the ECOWAS are to meet in Ghana Thursday and Friday to follow through on a decision by their leaders last week to deploy a "standby force to restore constitutional order" in Niger.
According to observers, an intervention to oust the coup leaders would be militarily and politically risky, and the bloc has said it prefers a diplomatic outcome.
ECOWAS issued a statement Tuesday "strongly condemning" the latest attack, urging the military "to restore constitutional order in Niger to be able to focus (its) attention on security... weaker since the attempted coup d'etat."
The generals who have detained Bazoum said "the deteriorating security situation" sparked the coup.
Talks have taken place this week in Addis Ababa among ECOWAS and Niger representatives under the aegis of the African Union.
The US said Wednesday that a new ambassador would head shortly to Niger and would help lead diplomacy aimed at reversing a coup.
Kathleen FitzGibbon, a career diplomat with extensive experience in Africa, will travel to Niamey despite the ordered departure of the embassy´s non-emergency staff.
On Tuesday, Niger's military-appointed civilian prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, made an unannounced visit to neighbouring Chad — a key nation in the unstable Sahel but not a member of ECOWAS.
He met President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, offering what he described as a message of "good neighbourliness and good fraternity" from the head of Niger's regime.
"We are in a process of transition, we discussed the ins and outs and reiterated our availability to remain open and talk with all parties, but insist on our country's independence," Zeine said.
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