A 50-year-old Frenchman was killed in a "terrorist attack" perpetrated on Tuesday in northern Benin, the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office announced Thursday, February 10 in Paris, which has opened an investigation for "assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise". .
This attack was "perpetrated in the W park located in the north of Benin", according to the Pnat.
The investigations were entrusted to the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI).
Sources familiar with the matter, it is specified that he is a former soldier who trained the forest guards of the park managed by the South African environmental defense NGO African Parks.
On Wednesday, the environmental NGO African Parks announced that five forest guards and a soldier had been killed and ten people injured in an ambush on Tuesday in this cross-border natural park managed by Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger.
"Yesterday (...) a team of rangers was ambushed in Benin's W National Park. (...) The provisional toll shows six dead, including five rangers and a soldier from the Benin Armed Forces (FAB), ten other people being injured," she said in a statement.
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 confirmed suspicions that jihadist groups in the region are seeking to advance towards the coast.
The Beninese army has strengthened its presence in the north of the country after the first two officially recognized jihadist attacks at the end of last year.
Last month, two Beninese soldiers were killed when their vehicle fell victim to an improvised bomb attack in the Atakora department in the north of the country.
With AFP
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