71 dead in Niger army base attack

The Nigerian army reports that Islamic State (IS) militants killed at least 71 soldiers and injured twelve in an attack on a military base in western Niger on Tuesday.

Niger’s Defence Minister, Issoufou Katambe, said that “a large number of terrorists” had been “neutralised” during the attack.

The minister reported that a “fierce battle” had been waged near the base at In Ates, with “several hundred militants” involved.

Analysis suggests that the insurgency of militants linked to IS and Al-Qaeda in the Sahel is escalating at an alarming rate, despite the influx of thousands of national and international troops to the region.

The In Ates camp, near the Mali border, was previously attacked in July of this year, causing the deaths of 18 soldiers. In October 2017, four US soldiers and fiver Nigeriens were also killed in a jihadist ambush at Tongo Tongo, a village not far from the site of Tuesday’s attack.

The camp is located in the Liptako-Gourma region, a stretch of land that reaches across parts of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. The region has been unstable since 2012, when separatist militants took over the northern part of Mali, prompting a French military intervention. A peace deal was signed in 2015 but never completely implemented, allowing new groups to expand across central Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Separatists in the region are suspected of a raft of illegal activities, including weapons and drugs trafficking; cattle rustling; and poaching. It is estimated that nearly 100 Malian soldiers have been killed by militants since September, forcing a retreat to their side of the border.

The In Ates attack comes directly after Niger’s government proposed a three-month extension to the state of emergency earlier this week. These measures have been in place for two years but the army is still struggling to contain the spread of armed militants.