[2] No casualties were reported in the May attack, but the Nigerien gendarmerie post in Ayorou was left without defensive walls afterward, and the gendarmes only had trenches to defend themselves.

[4] At dawn on October 21, militants in four to five vehicles and motorcycles and armed with machine guns and rocket launchers attacked the gendarmes in Ayorou.

[4] Nigerien paratroopers from the nearby Yassen camp then arrived as reinforcements, and chased the jihadists when they fled Ayorou.

[1] Some of the militants were intersected north of the town, near Inates and in Malian territory, after a Nigerien patrol killed several jihadists and destroyed their vehicle.

[10] In a statement released by the U.S. embassy, the United States strongly condemned the attack and offered condolences to the families of the victims.