Niger: At least 10 soldiers killed in an ambush

An ambush by a "group of criminals" killed at least 10 Nigerien soldiers near the border with Burkina Faso this week, Niger's ruling military junta said.

An intervention unit was sent to the west of the country on Monday to arrest criminals who were stealing cattle in Takzat, a village in western Niger, according to a military statement released Wednesday evening.

"It was during this operation that a group of criminals ambushed the detachment of the internal security forces, resulting in the loss of 10 of our soldiers ." The statement did not specify who the criminals were.

The attackers managed to escape, but the military caught and neutralized 15 "terrorists" on Tuesday, the statement added.

Niger, like its neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali, has been battling an insurgency for more than a decade led by jihadist groups, some of which are allied with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

Following military coups in all three countries in recent years, the ruling juntas expelled French forces and turned to Russian mercenary units for security assistance. The three countries have pledged to strengthen cooperation by establishing a new security alliance, the Alliance of Sahel States.

But the security situation in the Sahel, a vast region bordering the Sahara Desert, has deteriorated significantly since the juntas came to power, analysts say, with record numbers of attacks and civilians killed by both jihadists and government forces.

Ten soldiers were killed and seven others wounded in an attack near Niger's border with Burkina Faso last December, according to the army.

That same month, militants from an affiliate of the Islamic State group — known as Islamic State Sahel Province — likely shot dead 21 bus passengers in the village of Arboudji, near the border with Burkina Faso, according to the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data.