Five forest rangers and a soldier were killed and ten people wounded in an ambush Tuesday in a transboundary nature park managed by Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger, a conservation organization announced Wednesday.
“Yesterday (…) a team of rangers was ambushed in Benin’s W National Park. (…) The provisional toll is six dead, including five rangers and a soldier of the Armed Forces of Benin (FAB), ten other people were injured,” said African Parks, an environmental NGO, in a statement.
The attack has not yet been claimed, 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 rangers have been deployed to 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 toward the coast.
Benin’s military has increased its presence in the north of the country after the first two officially recognized jihadist attacks late last year. Last month, two Beninese soldiers were killed when their vehicle was the victim of an improvised explosive device attack in the Atakora department in the north of the country.