SAA event in Niger on Sun 2nd July 2023

On Saturday, July 1, 2023, it was almost 2 p.m. on the Arlit-Assamaka axis. A police vehicle with seven elements on board was leaving on a mission to the city of Arlit.

According to our sources, the only vehicle was equipped with an M80 and an Ak47, in addition to the agents' PAs.
What should not happen happened 125 km from Arlit. The police vehicle was followed and then immobilized by a sand-colored, unregistered V6 vehicle with about fifteen heavily armed foreign elements on board.
The valiant Nigerien police officers, despite the numerical superiority of the attackers and, moreover, better equipped, held their own against them for almost an hour.
According to reliable sources, given the exhaustion of the police officers' ammunition, the head of the Bpx SH mission asked his elements to stop fighting and to surrender because the enemy was preparing to use a rocket.
The attackers then took the vehicle and the weapons, abandoning all the seriously injured police officers on the spot. One of them, Bpx MA, the mission's driver, unfortunately succumbed to his injuries and the others were transferred to Arlit by a traveler who arrived on the scene.
This attack, which shocked many Nigeriens, shows that great efforts still need to be made to protect northern Niger.
Yes. After this tragedy, there are questions that challenge the authorities of our country and which deserve clear and concise answers. Why does the Assamaka police station, a strategic border post, exposed to all dangers, have only two vehicles? How is it that non-state armed groups continue to strut around happily in this part of the national territory despite the security network in place, as in the case of the Garkuwa force? Why was no reinforcement able to intervene in time to help these police officers?