The American forces were on a mission to locate and kill the ISGS commander. The mission was described in a plan submitted by Team Ouallam’s commander as a civil and military reconnaissance patrol in the Tiloa region.
The captain didn’t accurately tell about the mission whether to kill him or locate him. The patrol did not find the sub-commander in Tiloa, and they found only an empty enemy camp west of Tongo Tongo.
To allow the Nigerians to drink water, the patrol paused in Tongo Tongo. They had meetings with at least 27 villagers there. The soldiers were then hit by fire coming from the east.
They moved into a defensive position as the attack intensified. At 12:50 p.m. local time after one hour of intense battle, “they wrote short notes to loved ones, assuming they would not make it past.
The first to arrive on the scene was a Nigerien quick reaction team, however, they originally mistook the patrol members for enemy forces and fired on them for 48 seconds before they could be formally identified.
