Five members of Niger’s armed forces were killed yesterday Sunday by “gunmen” while guaranteeing the safety of a convoy of gold miners in the region of Arlit (north), which is mainly covered by desert, near the border with Algeria, sources close to the sources told AFP yesterday. security forces and local authorities.

According to a source close to the security forces, initially armed men mixed with the gold miners “opened fire” against the military escorting the convoy.

The latter pursued them but “fell into an ambush”, as a result of which five soldiers were killed, the same source added.

The motorcade was heading to Arlit after leaving makeshift gold mines in Chibarakaten, 450 kilometers northeast of the city, near the border with Algeria, where thousands of people have flocked to find gold since 2014.

An eyewitness told the Agadez (northern)-based Air Info news website that “heavily armed” men opened fire on the convoy before soldiers “came into an ambush”. Five other army men were injured, according to the information of the same media.

The perpetrators stole “large quantities of gold” as they appeared to be “very well informed”, a local elected official told AFP.

Robberies and other attacks on gold miners are now common in the Agadez region, where gang activity persists after the end of two Tuareg rebellions (1991-1995, 2007-2009), a problem exacerbated by the collapse of the Libyan state.

On April 12, 2022, four members of the National Guard were murdered by “unknown” gunmen in Jado, an area where gold veins are located in Agadez district, not far from the border with Libya.

The vast expanses of the desert in Niger, in areas bordering Libya and Algeria, rarely become a field of action for jihadists, but are nevertheless part of corridors for the trafficking of migrants, weapons and drugs, mainly in the direction of Europe.

Moreover, veins of gold are found there, a magnet for thousands of citizens of Niger and neighboring states.

Local authorities often refer to the “deterioration of the security situation” in these areas, above all on roads infested by armed gangs.

The US contributes to the surveillance of the region thanks to a large base of UAVs in Dirkou, near Libya.