Niger’s defence ministry said Sunday that four of its soldiers had been killed the day before in twin “terrorist” attacks in the country’s southeast, the day after President Mohamed Bazoum was sworn in. “Several terrorists” had been killed in the simultaneous Saturday morning attacks against military positions, the ministry said using a term usually used to describe jihadists. Since the start of this year alone, more than 300 people have been killed in three attacks in the west. “We cannot envisage any dialogue of any kind so long as there is a single Nigerien jihadist chief, a single jihadist base on our territory,” he said in a recent interview with French media outlets RFI and France 24. As well as the jihadist insurgency, Niger’s government claimed it had thwarted an “attempted coup” after gunfire broke out near the presidency in capital Niamey early Wednesday.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 04, 2021 21:22 UTC