French forces have killed dozens of fighters in Burkina Faso linked to deadly attacks this week in neighboring Benin whose victims included a Frenchman, the military said.
The French-led Barkhane force in the Sahel region “engaged its air intelligence capabilities to locate the armed group” responsible for the attacks, before carrying out air strikes that killed 40 fighters, the army’s general command said Saturday.
The Frenchman was among nine people killed this week in two attacks on forest rangers in the W National Park, a wildlife reserve in Benin’s remote north on the troubled border with Niger and Burkina Faso.
Two roadside bombs killed five park rangers, a park official, a soldier and a French trainer on Tuesday, according to a Beninese government report.
Two days later, another park official was killed in an explosion.
France announced Thursday that it had opened an investigation because a 50-year-old citizen was among those killed in a “terrorist attack” in the park.
African Parks, the organization that manages the reserve, said the Frenchman had been a “chief instructor of law enforcement” there.
Benin has long been one of the most stable countries in West Africa, where fighters from al-Qaeda and EIIL threaten the Sahel countries, but it has seen several recent attacks.
Criminal smuggling gangs also operate along its border.
In January, two Beninese soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck an IED in the northern Atakora region.
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