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Seven soldiers and 11 suspected jihadists were killed in clashes in a troubled western region of Niger ahead of elections this weekend, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
An army patrol in the Taroun area of the Tillaberi region was ambushed early Monday by “heavily armed terrorists” riding on motorcycles and other vehicles, it said in a statement, using a term that typically denotes jihadists.
The country, the poorest in the world according to the UN Human Development Index reference, will organize presidential and legislative elections on Sunday.
The latest attack came less than two weeks after nearly three dozen villagers were massacred in the southeast of the country.
The statement said seven soldiers were killed and another two and a civilian were wounded, while 11 attackers were killed, seven of them after the army launched a “spontaneous response.”
“Motorcycles and weapons were seized. Follow-up operations are underway in the area,” he said.
Map of Niger locating the Tillaberi region. By AFP (AFP) Tillaberi is located in the so-called triple border zone, an area plagued by jihadists where the porous borders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso converge.
Motorcycle travel has been banned there since January in a bid to prevent incursions by highly mobile jihadists traveling on two wheels.
Niger regards Sunday’s two-round vote as a historic moment, heading the country for its first peaceful handover between elected leaders since independence from France 60 years ago.
President Mahamadou Issoufou, who was elected in 2011 after the country’s last coup in 2010, resigns voluntarily after two terms.
His designated successor, Mohamed Bazoum, 60, a former interior and foreign minister, is the frontrunner in a field of 30 candidates.
Other prominent contenders are two former heads of state, Mahamane Ousmane and Salou Djibo.
Bazoum’s main rival, former Prime Minister Hama Amadou, 70, was unable to contest the vote last month on the grounds that he was given a 12-month deadline in 2017 for alleged baby trafficking, a charge he says which was false.
In March, he received a presidential pardon while serving his sentence.
Jihadist threat
Niger is being hit in the southwest by jihadists from neighboring Mali and in the southeast by jihadists from Nigeria, the cradle of the decade-long insurgency started by Boko Haram.
Shirt support: Mohamed Bazoum, the candidate of the Nigerian Party for Democracy and Socialism, is the favorite in Sunday’s vote. By Issouf SANOGO (AFP) Four thousand people in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger died last year from jihadist violence and ethnic bloodshed provoked by Islamists, according to the UN.
On December 12, 34 villagers were massacred in In Toumour, in the southeastern region of Diffa, on the eve of municipal and regional elections that had been repeatedly delayed due to lack of security.
The government insisted that the attack in Tillaberi would not hamper Sunday’s vote, for which 7.4 million people are registered.
The army will be massively deployed, authorities say.
“Sporadic attacks will not impede the elections stage,” said a spokesman.
The December 12 attack triggered a three-day period of national mourning, but the following day’s elections went smoothly, officials say.
