Two police officers have been reported killed and one wounded in an attack on a police station in northwest Benin on Sunday.
Police sources confirmed the latest in a string of deadly assaults in an area affected by a spillover of militant activity in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Reuters report that an eye witness said suspected jihadists descended on the Dassari police station at around 2 a.m. and opened fire, killing two officers before they were pushed back.
Dassari is a town around 600km northwest of Benin’s largest city Cotonou, near the border with Burkina Faso.
It is around 250km from a police station in the commune of Karimana, near the border with Niger that was raided by armed assailants on April 26 – leaving at least one dead and several wounded.
Groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that spread to northern Benin from West Africa’s Sahel region have escalated attacks in recent weeks.
The army in Benin has not yet issued an official statement on the attack.
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