The Benin government admitted that 54 soldiers were killed in the northern part of the country by suspected jihadists in the northern part of the country last week.
Authorities have previously said that only eight soldiers were killed.
The revised figures make it the deadliest attack since its inauguration in northern Benin early in the decade.
The attack was claimed by a group with Al Qaeda-linked (JAMA’AT NUSRAT AL-ISLAT WAL MUSLIMEEN (JNIM), a group based in Mali but has expanded its operations to neighboring countries in recent years.
According to the intelligence team site, the jihadist group has said it killed 70 soldiers in the raids of two military posts in the north.
JNIM is one of several jihadist groups operating in the Sahel region of West Africa (particularly Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso), where the military government works to curb insurgents.
Jihadism has increased in Benin and Togo in recent years as groups related to the ISIS and Al Qaeda spread to the south.
“The nation suffered huge losses,” Presidential spokesman Serge Nonvignon wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
Another government spokesman, Wilfried Leandre Houngbedji, said Benin was determined to continue his fight against the jihadists.
He said: “We will not surrender… I will assure you sooner or later that we will win.”
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