On 10 December 2019, a large group of fighters belonging to the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked a military post in Inates, Tillabéri Region, Niger.

They used guns, bombs, and mortars killing over seventy soldiers and kidnapping others in one of the worst attacks in the history of Niger.

[2][3][4] In the preceding months, attacks by the Islamic State in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have worsened with large scale firearm assaults on both the civilian population and armed forces.

In November, gunmen killed over 50 soldiers in the 2019 Indelimane attack in the Ménaka Region of Mali.

A week later in Burkina Faso, gunmen stormed a convoy of buses for the Boungou miners, killing 37, although some estimate the death toll to be much higher.