France launches terrorism probe over assault in northern Benin

France opened a terrorism investigation on Thursday into an assault on park rangers in northern Benin through which a French nationwide was amongst eight individuals killed, whereas the African nation reported the demise of one other individual in a recent assault.
The French authorities condemned the ambush through which 5 rangers together with their French teacher, a civilian park worker and a soldier had been killed and 12 others wounded whereas on an anti-poaching mission in W National Park on Tuesday.
“The national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office has opened a probe with a charge of murder in connection with a terrorist undertaking after having been informed of the passing of a 50-year-old French national following a terrorist attack in the W park, north Benin”, French prosecutors mentioned in a press release.

Benin authorities reported a brand new assault on Thursday through which one civilian park worker was killed when a reconnaissance patrol hit an improvised explosive machine.
Tuesday’s incident was the deadliest in a string of assaults since December in northern Benin, the place teams linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State have spilled over from Burkina Faso and Niger.
Recent assaults in Benin, Togo and Ivory Coast have highlighted the enlargement of Islamist violence from the landlocked Sahelian nations, the place an insurgency has raged for a lot of the final decade, to West African coastal nations.
Former French army members have skilled park rangers and accompanied them on patrols in Benin, the place South African non-profit African Parks manages the W and Pendjari National Parks.