A nature protection organization announced on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 that five forest rangers and a soldier were killed and ten wounded in an ambush on Tuesday, February 8 of the current year in a cross-border nature park managed by Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger.
“Yesterday (Ed. note: Tuesday, February 8, 2022) (…) a team of forest rangers was ambushed in the W National Park of Benin. (…) The provisional death toll shows six dead including five forest rangers and a soldier of the Armed Forces of Benin (FAB), ten other people being injured,” African Parks, an environmental NGO, said in a statement.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack so far, but a jihadist insurgency originating in the Sahel has spread to parts of coastal West Africa, including northern Benin. Authorities had not yet commented on the incident as of Wednesday evening. According to African Parks, additional military reinforcements and forest rangers have been deployed in the area.
A recent series of border raids in countries south of the Sahel has confirmed suspicions that jihadist groups in the region are seeking to advance towards the coast. The Beninese army has increased its presence in the north of the country following the first two officially recognized jihadist attacks at the end of last year.
Recall that in January 2022, two Beninese soldiers were killed when their vehicle was the victim of a homemade bomb attack in the Atakora department, in the north of the country.
Moctar FICOU / VivAfrik