Three employees of a Nigerien construction company were killed Tuesday in an attack carried out by “around ten criminals on motorcycles” against the construction site of a dam on the Niger River, the army announced.
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The attack occurred in Kandadji, a town in the Tillabéri region (west), about 200 km northwest of the capital Niamey and close to the Malian border, where a major hydroelectric dam is under construction.
“Early in the morning of November 19, 2024, an armed group of around ten criminals on five motorcycles carried out a deadly attack against civilians working on the Kandadji dam bypass site,” the army said in a bulletin. of operations published Wednesday evening on its website.
The Nigerian construction company Morey confirmed in a press release the death of “three of its agents” and denounced a “cowardly and barbaric attack”.
“The attackers suddenly appeared on the site and opened fire indiscriminately on the workers” leaving “three dead and three seriously injured” among the employees, according to the army, which cites “eyewitnesses”.
Material damage would also be reported.
“Alert by the gunfire, the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) already positioned in the area intervened quickly to secure the site and provide assistance to the victims,” the army said.
Then, “a large-scale air-land operation” made it possible to locate the attackers in Watagouna, in Malian territory, where “an air strike” made it possible to “destroy five motorcycles” and “eliminate ten attackers”, according to the bulletin of the operations.
The army described this attack as a “drama” against “a strategic project” which aims to “ensure the development” and “food security” of the Tillabéri region, the scene for years of deadly attacks by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Kandadji should eventually have a 130 megawatt power plant in 2025 which will be able to produce 629 GWh annually and thus allow Niger to free itself from its energy dependence on neighboring Nigeria.
At the end of September 2023, seven soldiers “on a security mission” on this site were killed during an attack carried out “by several hundred terrorists”, the Ministry of Defense then indicated.
