Barkhane is now committed to protecting the Malo-Nigerian border

Two “Mirage 2000” fighters from the Barkhane force (illustration).

ludovic MARIN / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Several strikes carried out against a column of motorcycles made it possible to neutralize on June 14 " 

 " near the border between Niger and Burkina Faso, announced this Thursday the general staff of the French armies. .

The Barkhane force, after leaving Ménaka at the beginning of the week, continues its re-articulation outside Mali.

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The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, whose main leaders have been neutralized over the past two years, is now taking advantage of the French withdrawal to regenerate itself on the Malian side.

The assault led this Tuesday, June 14 by fifty fighters against a detachment of the Nigerien gendarmerie, in the isolated village of Waraou, illustrates the porosity of the Malo-Nigerian border. 

The rapid reaction of the Nigerien armed forces reassures today the general staff of the armies in Paris.

They immediately warned the French air force based in Niamey, indicates a military source and the passage of a Mirage 2000 patrol at low altitude was enough to disperse the jihadists.

Then the information obtained thanks to the Nigerien units remaining in contact allowed Barkhane's planes to strike this same column.

A reassurance operation which therefore worked perfectly thanks to the Gata, the advanced tactical air spotters of the Nigerien armed forces.

True keystone of the combat partnership, at the forefront of the device.

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• mali

• Niger

• Terrorism