Suspected Islamist militants killed 25 soldiers and wounded six others in an attack on an army post in west Niger near its border with Mali on Thursday, the government said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack on the post at Chinagodrar, about 130 miles (209 km) north of the capital Niamey, in which 63 assailants were also killed.
But the attack coincides with a campaign by Islamist groups connected to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group to force the Nigerien army back from its western frontier with Mali where government control of the rural centre and north has all but evaporated because of the rise of jihadists.
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Source: France 24