Benin borders three West African countries battling a jihadist insurgency and its frontier areas also struggle with arms trafficking and smuggling.

"We lost two of our men," said one military official after the post in Porga in Atacora region was attacked in the early hours of Thursday. "We also have some wounded soldiers."

A second source close to the army chief of staff blamed the attack on jihadists and confirmed the toll of two soldiers dead and also one of the assailants.

Benin's military has not officially commented on the attack.

The small coastal country has been a relative safe haven in a region struggling with jihadist violence that has spread from Nigeria and Mali.

Only one jihadist attack has been officially confirmed in Benin.

Two French tourists were kidnapped in 2019 and their tour guide killed in the remote Pendjari park on the border with Burkina Faso.

They were rescued soon afterwards by French special forces in northern Burkina Faso where they had been taken.

Burkina Faso faces a expanding jihadist conflict that has spilled over the border from neighbouring Mali and spread across the Sahel region.