VOA was the first news organization to reach the mayor of the Nigerien village where U.S. Special Forces soldiers were killed in an October, 2017 ambush. “The attackers, the bandits, the terrorists have never lacked accomplices among local populations,” Mayor Almou Hassane told VOA French. “The unit stayed a little longer than expected because apparently people were aware that something was going on.” VOA’s original reporting on how villagers delayed the troops while terrorists laid their ambush provided information about the incident not otherwise available to audiences.  This unique content was picked up by NBC online, by Newsweek, The Daily Mail, BuzzFeed News and on-air by The Rachel Maddow Show.