French troops killed 40 militants on the Benin-Burkina Faso border in West Africa’s Sahel region, AFP reported citing the army said Saturday.
The action followed an attack on park rangers in northern Benin on Tuesday in which a French national was among eight people killed.
The French national was among nine people killed this week in two attacks in the W National Park, a wildlife reserve in Benin’s remote north bordering troubled Niger and Burkina Faso.
One patrol trying to flush out poachers and another hit two roadside bombs on Tuesday, killing five park rangers, one park official, one soldier and a French trainer, according to a Beninese government toll.
Two days later, a third patrol hit an explosive, killing another park official.
The toll was the deadliest in recent attacks Benin has suffered as coastal West African states face spillover from Sahel countries battling jihadists.
France said on Thursday it had opened an investigation as a 50-year-old citizen was among those killed in a “terrorist attack” in the park.
African Parks, the organization running the reserve, said the Frenchman had been a “chief law enforcement instructor” there.
Benin had long been one of the more stable countries in West Africa, where militants from the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda threaten Sahel countries.
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