Farm assault kills ‘about 15’ in West African nation of Benin

An assault by unidentified armed individuals within the north of the small West African nation of Benin has killed “about 15 individuals,” in response to the federal government’s spokesperson.

Spokesperson Wilfried Houngbedji instructed AP by phone Thursday that the assault on a farm within the commune of Kerou, some 370 miles north of Benin’s largest metropolis Cotonou, started on Monday night time.

Local media reported that a number of different individuals had been kidnapped by the attackers.

OVER 4,000 FAMILIES DISPLACED BY BURUNDI FLOODS

Over the previous three years, Benin and neighboring Togo have suffered a number of lethal extremist assaults, with an elevated danger of violence from al-Qaida and Islamic State-linked teams spreading additional south from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

At a information convention Wednesday, Houngbedji earlier mentioned Benin’s president, Patrice Talon, had known as for a fact-finding mission within the space “to evaluate the true circumstances of the prevalence of this tragedy and consequently to attract classes from it.”

Benin has been affected by extremist assaults over the previous few years. (Fox News)

The spokesperson instructed the army may need been in a position to do extra to forestall the assault, with out offering particulars.

The Kerou area isn’t removed from Benin’s borders with Burkina Faso and Niger. The area, which is mountainous in locations, has skilled a historical past of violence for greater than two years, particularly assaults by unidentified people.

In May 2019, two French vacationers had been kidnapped by jihadists in a nationwide park in northern Benin and their Beninese information was killed. The French military later intervened to rescue them in northern Burkina. Two French troopers had been killed within the mission.

At least two assaults on Beninese troopers within the border area with Burkina and Niger in July 2022 had been claimed by the armed group “Islamic State within the Greater Sahara (EIGS)”.