NIAMEY—At least 10 Nigerien soldiers were killed in an ambush, and more than a dozen others were injured by armed assailants near the West African Sahel nation’s border with neighboring Mali, Niger’s defense minister said in a statement on Saturday.

Around 16 people are missing following the attack on Friday evening in Banibangou near Mali, Alkassoum Indattou said in a statement, adding that air force support forced the insurgents to flee across the border into Mali.

Niger, alongside neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso are struggling to quell terrorists linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorist groups who carry out raids, and control swathes of territories in the vast Sahel region.