2017 Ayorou attack
Battle in Niger
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The 2017 Ayorou attack occurred on 21 October 2017 when armed militants from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked a Nigerien military outpost in the village of Ayorou in southwestern Niger, killing 13 gendarmes. Occurring just weeks after a similar attack in the area killed four American and four Nigerien troops, the attack was carried out by ISGS gunmen who crossed the porous border from Mali.
| 2017 Ayorou attack | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Jihadist insurgency in Niger | |||||||
  2017 Ayorou attack (Niger) | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Niger |
 Islamic State in the Greater Sahara | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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13 killed 5 injured 3 vehicles captured |
3+ killed 1 vehicle destroyed | ||||||
Background
The town of Ayorou, located four kilometers from the Malian refugee camp of Tabareybarey and twenty-five kilometers from the Malian border town of Labbezanga.[1] Jihadists had attacked Ayorou on May 11, 2017, with the jihadists seizing weapons and ammunition.[2] No casualties were reported in the May attack, but the Nigerien gendarmerie post in Ayorou was left without defensive walls afterward, and the gendarmes only had trenches to defend themselves.[3]
In early October 2017, Nigerien and American forces were killed by an ISGS ambush in Tongo Tongo, also in Tillabéri Region.[4]
Attack
At dawn on October 21, militants in four to five vehicles and motorcycles and armed with machine guns and rocket launchers attacked the gendarmes in Ayorou.[4] The jihadists entered Ayorou from the east, and looted the gendarme's armory stealing weapons and three vehicles.[4] Nigerien paratroopers from the nearby Yassen camp then arrived as reinforcements, and chased the jihadists when they fled Ayorou.[1] Some of the militants were intersected north of the town, near Inates and in Malian territory, after a Nigerien patrol killed several jihadists and destroyed their vehicle.[1][4] Nigerien planes surveilled the area, and cleanup operations were launched. The air force had spotted some of the jihadists in a Malian village during the clean-up operations, but the attackers escaped.[5]
Aftermath
Thirteen gendarmes were killed and five others were wounded, according to the Nigerien Ministry of Defense spokesman Samba Gagara.[6][7] Residents of Ayorou testified that the jihadists fled the town carrying bodies of their comrades, and at least three were left behind.[4][6][8][9] The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara claimed responsibility for the attack on January 12, 2018.[10]
In a statement released by the U.S. embassy, the United States strongly condemned the attack and offered condolences to the families of the victims.[11]