Five forest rangers and seven soldiers were killed by unknown assailants in the W National Park in northern Benin, African Parks, a non-governmental environmental protection organization, announced on Saturday.

During the attack, which was carried out during the night of Wednesday 24 to Thursday 25 July, “five African Parks rangers” and “seven members of the Benin armed forces” were killed, the NGO said.

The Benin army has not officially reacted so far.

African Parks has taken steps to identify the bodies of its staff members and “to inform the families” of the victims, to whom it will “offer its support at this tragic time”, it added.

There has been no claim of responsibility at this time. However, the jihadist insurgency in the Sahel has spread in recent years to some coastal areas of West Africa, notably northern Benin.

Attacks there have increased recently; authorities attribute them to members of jihadist organizations who pledge allegiance to either the Islamic State (IS) or al-Qaeda and come from countries where they thrive.

In early June, seven soldiers were killed in an attack by unknown persons in the Penjari National Park, also in the north of the country.

The Benin authorities, who rarely publicly refer to attacks of this nature, spoke in April 2023 of about twenty armed raids that invaded the country’s territory from other states after 2021.

In January 2022, Benin deployed nearly 3,000 troops to guarantee border security under Operation Mirador as the threat of jihadist attacks grew.