Unidentified gunmen have killed 11 soldiers defending a village in a remote part of southwest Niger where armed group fighters operate, the defence ministry said.
The heavily armed attackers approached in a convoy of cars and motorbikes on Thursday afternoon, clashing with soldiers stationed outside the village of Dagne near the border with Mali, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The attack by “a column of heavily armed terrorists in several vehicles and dozens of motorcycles” killed 11 soldiers, and left one injured and nine missing, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defence read out on public television.
“After fierce fighting, the enemy column was forced to retreat with its dead and wounded,” added the statement, which said “air and ground reinforcements dispatched to the area continue to sweep” the locality
No group has claimed responsibility for the assault. A local affiliate of ISIL (ISIS) has killed hundreds of civilians in a series of attacks in the same area this year despite government efforts to regain control.