Four people were killed when armed assailants attacked a small farming hamlet near Ivory Coast’s northern border with Burkina Faso, military officials said Tuesday. Army Chief of Staff Lassina Doumbia confirmed that the attackers also torched vehicles and stole livestock during the raid. The incident marks one of the deadliest assaults in northern Ivory Coast since 2020–2021, when soldiers were targeted in a series of cross-border strikes, prompting the government to reinforce security in the area.

The attack comes amid a surge of violence across coastal West Africa, where militants linked to Sahel insurgencies have expanded operations beyond Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Togo and Benin have both suffered deadly raids this year, underscoring the inability of military juntas in the Sahel to contain the conflict more than a decade after it began.

According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the Sahel has been the most lethal theater of militant-Islamist violence in Africa for four consecutive years, accounting for 55% of fatalities on the continent. In its April report, the center said more than 10,400 people were killed in the region, with two-thirds of civilian casualties occurring in Sahel countries.