Two police officers were killed in an ambush while on patrol in northeastern Benin near the Niger border, according to a local official on Monday.
The officers were attacked by unidentified armed men while riding their motorbikes in the Karimama district, located approximately 750 km (460 miles) north of Benin’s commercial hub, Cotonou. Amadou Bonkanon, the second deputy mayor of Karimama, who visited the scene, confirmed the ambush and stated that the attackers seized the officers’ weapons and set fire to one of the motorcycles before fleeing the area.
Benin, bordered by insurgency-ridden Burkina Faso and Niger to the north, is increasingly vulnerable to cross-border attacks by militant groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.
In June, suspected Islamist militants killed seven soldiers in northern Benin’s Pendjari National Park, heightening concerns about the growing threat of extremist violence in the region.
