---
title: "The US is offering a ton of cash for help hunting down those responsible for the 2017 Niger attack"
description: "Two years after four Army special forces soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger, the State Department has a $5 million reward for information that would help it arrest anyone involved in the ambush. There is also a $5 million reward for help tracking down the leader of the ISIS affiliate which claimed responsibility for the ambush."
date: "2019-10-04"
modified: "2019-10-04"
authors:
  - name: "David Roza"
    job_title: "YouTube Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/david-roza/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/state-department-reward-niger-isis/"
categories:
  - "Africa"
  - "Around the World"
  - "Intelligence"
  - "News"
  - "Tactics"
  - "Tech & Tactics"
tags:
  - "africa command"
  - "ISIS"
  - "Terrorism"
---

# The US is offering a ton of cash for help hunting down those responsible for the 2017 Niger attack

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/21179085-1.jpg>)

Exactly two years after four Army special forces soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger, the U.S. State Department [is offering a ](<https://www.state.gov/rewards-for-justice-reward-offer-for-those-involved-in-the-2017-tongo-tongo-ambush-in-niger/>)reward of up to $5 million for information that would help it arrest anyone who helped plan or carry out the ambush.

In a press release on Friday, the State Department said it is also offering a separate reward of up to $5 million for information that would help it track down Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, the leader of the terrorist group Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISIS-GS), which claimed responsibility for the ambush.

According to the press release, the funding is offered through the State Department's Rewards for Justice Program, a 35-year-old program which has paid more than $150 million to more than 100 people "who provided actionable information that helped bring terrorists to justice or prevented acts of international terrorism worldwide."

The ambush occurred near the village of Tongo Tongo, in the desert of southwestern Niger. The four slain soldiers, Army Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson, Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, and Sgt. La David T. Johnson, were part of a group of U.S. and Nigerien forces that set out in unarmored vehicles for a reconnaissance mission that morphed into a disastrous attempt to capture a terrorist. Five Nigerien soldiers were also killed in the attack.

The ambush kicked off an investigation into Army leadership decisions preceding the ambush. Investigators found a series of errors leading up to the mission, such as mischaracterizing the U.S. troops' initial mission as civil-military reconnaissance.

However, the review did not recommend for any high-level commanders to be punished.

The announcement comes the same day the company commander of the ambushed soldiers wrote [an op-ed](<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/magazine/niger-ambush-army-accountability.html?te=1&nl=at-war&emc=edit_war_20191004?campaign_id=88&instance_id=12832&segment_id=17579&user_id=e6f3aebfd8e90a723689901d2a68bfe8&regi_id=94267866>) in *The New York Times* saying the Army botched its investigation of the ambush and failed to hold its senior leaders accountable.

The commander, former Army Maj. Alan Van Saun, said he received an unwarranted reprimand from the Army after the ambush. The reprimand effectively ended his career, he said.

"\[W\]hile subsequent reviews of the investigation offered yet another chance to hold people responsible, those opportunities fled quickly, leaving the chain of command, in which I had entrusted so much, unaccountable for decisions they made in my absence, but for which I was left responsible," Van Saun wrote.

## Author
David Roza writes scripts about military news for the Task & Purpose YouTube channel, and he also writes articles about military pay, benefits, health care, child care, culture, and other personnel topics on a freelance basis.

Roza previously covered the Air Force and Space Force for Task & Purpose from 2019 to 2023 and for Air & Space Forces Magazine from 2023 to 2025. In the course of that reporting, he has set off a ‘Hollywood explosion’ with Air Force bomb techs, turned the (unarmed) keys of a nuclear missile bunker, hovered over the Nevada desert on an Air Force rescue helicopter, and got the best sleep of his life on the floor of a C-17 over the central Pacific.

Share tips and story ideas with David at [david.roza@teamrecurrent.io](<mailto:david.roza@teamrecurrent.io>)