COTONOU, April 24, 2025 — The government of Benin has confirmed that 54 soldiers were killed in a deadly attack by suspected jihadist insurgents on April 17 in W National Park, northern Benin.
Government spokesman Wilfried Leandre Houngbedji announced the revised death toll during a press briefing on Wednesday, April 22, 2025, significantly raising the earlier count of eight fatalities.
The attack, the deadliest since the outbreak of insurgent violence in the region, was claimed by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM), an al-Qaeda-affiliated organization. The group had claimed responsibility for killing 70 soldiers.
“Even if it’s not the 70 they claimed, it’s still a lot,” said Houngbedji. “The soldiers who have fallen are our children, our parents, our friends.”
The ambush occurred in the W National Park, near the tri-border area between Benin, Burkina Faso, and Niger — a region increasingly targeted by militant groups operating from neighboring countries.
In response to escalating threats, Benin deployed nearly 3,000 troops to its northern border in January 2022 and later reinforced security with an additional 5,000 personnel.
In a similar incident in January, 28 Beninese soldiers were killed near the same tri-border zone, also in an attack claimed by GSIM.
Benin has until recent years largely avoided the instability seen in other Sahel nations, but the surge in jihadist attacks has raised alarms about the spread of extremism into West African coastal states.
