Benin national park witnesses a tragic attack with 7 security forces and 5 rangers killed as jihadi violence takes hold.
A conservation organization reports that an armed group attacked Benin’s National Park W, resulting in the deaths of at least seven security personnel and five rangers affiliated with the nonprofit. The militant takeover caused widespread devastation.
On Saturday, African Parks group released a statement revealing that the attack didn’t occur too far from the Mékrou River situated in the national park covering 10,000 square kilometers (3,800 square miles) crossing over to Burkina Faso and Niger. The incident took place on Wednesday earlier this week.
The attack in Benin has not been addressed by authorities, a trend often observed from the government and military.
Recent incidents of violence are part of an ongoing trend in which militants with ties to the war-torn Sahel region, located south of the Sahara Desert, have expanded their reach into West Africa and begun targeting coastal nations such as Benin.
The perpetrators of the attack on Park W were unspecified. However, neighboring countries Burkina Faso and Niger have seen an influx of militants who may be using the area’s extensive protected land as a launching point to penetrate other nations in West Africa, causing concern among officials.
The JNIM group, with ties to al-Qaida, has displayed the highest level of activity within the Sahel region and lately in coastal West African nations such as Benin and Togo.
While they were previously thought to be moving towards the coastal states in search of improved coverage for recovery, funding and equipping themselves to launch further assaults on governments within Sahel, their soldiers have now begun assaulting communities and security personnel as militant tendencies take hold.
