Speculated Islamist militants killed 25 soldiers and injured six others in an assault on an army station in west Niger near its border with Mali, the government announced.
It was not instantly apparent who was accountable for the attack on the post at Chinagodrar, approximately 130 miles north of the capital Niamey.
But it corresponds with an attack by Islamist groups related to al Qaeda and Islamic State to drive the Nigerien army back from its western frontier with Mali, where government authority of the rural centre and north has all but disappeared because of the emergence of jihadists.
Aggressors neared the military post on motorcycles and other vehicles and were met with opposition from the army and the air force, the government stated in a declaration. Sixty-three assaulters were also killed during the invasion.
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