An attack blamed on suspected jihadist fighters killed about 10 soldiers in Niger, state radio reported Tuesday.

The attack on Sunday near a village in the southwest of the huge desert country, ruled by a military regime, was the latest in a series suspected to be by groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

Since July 2023, when the army staged a coup, at least 2,400 people have been killed in the violence, according to a tally by NGO Acled, which tracks the victims of conflict around the world.

“Ten defence and security forces personnel fell in action after a cowardly and barbaric attack Sunday at around 5:00 pm (1600 GMT) by terrorists,” the Voice of the Sahel reported.

It said seven soldiers were also wounded, including “one seriously”, in the raid near Dogon Kiria in Dogondoutchi department in the Dosso region bordering Nigeria and Benin.

“Several terrorists were neutralised and accomplices arrested,” the report continued, saying Dosso governor Colonel Bana Alhassane went to Dogondoutchi on Monday to offer condolences to victims’ families.

In October 2019, two Nigerien soldiers died in a jihadist attack in the same area.

Not officially considered a jihadist hotspot, the zone has seen acts of “sabotage” the army blames on “bandits” from Nigeria targeting an oil pipeline to Benin.

The southeastern city of Diffa was also attacked overnight Sunday by “elements of Boko Haram”, a Nigeria-based jihadist group, the governor of Diffa region, General Ibrahim Mahamadou Bagadoma, told Voice of the Sahel.

The general did not indicate if there were any casualties in what he termed a “cowardly and barbaric” attack on two police posts. He added the attack was repulsed thanks to the “vigorous reaction” of police backed by “army reinforcements”.

The broadcaster said the attack targeted “two strategic positions in the town” and was the work of “numerous Boko Haram members”.

Africa’s Lake Chad region — comprising Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria — is battling a more than decade-long jihadist insurgency.