extension of Niger --
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tongo+Tongo,+Niger/@15.0546996,-0.4058379,894211m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x11dc807698e59c23:0x1f4532e898b83610!8m2!3d15.0547!4d1.835373
(copy the entire URL above and paste in your browser)
the red location marker is where Tongo Tongo is
zoom in -- looks like what might be scrub brush just to the south of the village.
Sorry, no Street View (LOL)
New York Times, 10/20/17
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/world/africa/niger-ambush-conflicting-accounts.html
Eventually, after talking to the village chief, the troops got into their vehicles to return to their base, a two-hour drive.
But less than five minutes after they drove out of the village, the convoy was ambushed by a group that outnumbered them two to one.
About 100 armed insurgents, many of whom were on motorbikes — two or three people a bike — as well as others in about 10 sport utility vehicles, surrounded the convoy. They were armed with heavy weapons, including antiaircraft weaponry as well as rocket-propelled grenades, according to a Nigerien official.
Soldiers in the joint patrol were riding in military vehicles as well as civilian Land Cruisers from the American Embassy. The firefight lasted two to three hours, the Nigerien official said, until a response unit from the military base arrived for reinforcements. French helicopters arrived to evacuate the dead and wounded as well as other soldiers.
Two or three vehicles in the convoy were destroyed in the firefight — most of the dead were in those vehicles. Part of the convoy became separated when at least one of the Land Cruisers became stuck in the mud. Sgt. La David T. Johnson, who died in the ambush, was in that vehicle, along with Nigerien soldiers who also died.
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I thought it was desert.
= new reply since forum marked as read
