It is the deadliest attack that the Beninese army has ever suffered since Sahelian jihadist groups targeted its territory. On Wednesday January 8, at least 28 soldiers were killed in the north of the country. “The attack took place around 7 p.m. at the “triple point”, the border area between Benin, Niger and Burkina, explains a military source who requested anonymity. It occurred inside the W park, about sixty kilometers from the position I occupied. About thirty of our men died. » According to her, around 70 attackers were also killed in the fighting.
In a letter addressed the next day to the defense and security forces, relayed by several Beninese media, Colonel Faïzou Gomina, the chief of staff of the national guard, expressed his condolences and recognized “a very heavy loss. » “We have received a very hard blow but we are not going to give in”, he added. The attack was claimed on Friday by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the Al-Qaeda movement in the Sahel. His clashes with the Beninese army are recurrent in the W Park, a nature reserve of approximately 10,000 km² which owes its name to the meanders drawn by the Niger River and extends over the territories of Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso.
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