Five Indians kidnapped in attack in Niger

1/5/2025 5:48

Five Indian citizens were

kidnapped in western Niger during an attack last week by armed

men that also killed a dozen soldiers, according to two Nigerian

security sources and a statement by Indian state authorities

seen by Reuters on Wednesday.



Reuters reported on Saturday that 12 soldiers had been

killed in the attack a day earlier near the village of Sakoira

in the tri-border region, where the West African Sahel countries

of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali meet.



The victims were working for an Indian company providing

services to Niger's Kandadji dam project, the two security

sources said.



The local government of the Indian state of Jharkhand said

in a statement that the five citizens had been working in the

Tillaberi region.



It said all five were from Jharkhand and that the Indian

embassy in Niger had approached Nigerian authorities for support

in securing their release.



The armed men who carried out the kidnapping have not been

officially identified, but last month Niger blamed the EIGS

group, an Islamic State affiliate, for an attack on a mosque

near the tri-border area in which at least 44 civilians were

killed.



Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso are fighting a jihadist

insurgency linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that spun out of

a Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali in 2012 and later spread to

its neighbouring countries.



Kidnappings appear to have intensified this year, with an

Austrian woman kidnapped in January and a Swiss citizen earlier

in April, both in Niger. Also in January, four Moroccan truck

drivers went missing on the border between Niger and Burkina

Faso.