Niger said it had regained control of a \u200bkey military airbase in the capital Niamey after an\u00a0attack\u00a0by mutinous soldiers on Saturday, in the latest \u200cchallenge to military ruler Abdourahamane Tiani as his government struggles to contain a jihadist insurgency.<\/p>\n
The attack highlighted tensions within Niger’s armed forces, which have suffered repeated battlefield losses while fighting West Africa’s al Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates.<\/p>\n
Explosions and gunfire rang out across Niamey early \u200bon Saturday, including at the military airbase and around the presidency.<\/p>\n
Located in the same complex as Niamey’s \u200bcivilian airport, the airbase is home to military aircraft and drones as well as a \u2060counter-terrorism unit of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) which includes Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.<\/p>\n
Russian and Italian forces are \u200balso stationed there. Africa Corps, a Kremlin-controlled paramilitary force, received a request for assistance in neutralising the mutineers in Niamey, \u200bViktor Voropaev, the Russian ambassador to Niger, said on Saturday in an interview with TASS news agency.<\/p>\n
Prior to Saturday’s attack, the airbase had already been targeted twice this year – in January by the regional Islamic State affiliate and in June by the regional al Qaeda \u200baffiliate.<\/p>\n
Niger state media said late Saturday that the attack involved “hundreds of disaffected soldiers” and that fighting lasted for several \u200bhours as forces loyal to military leader Tiani tried to regain control.<\/p>\n
It aired footage purporting to show surrendering mutineers.<\/p>\n
Reuters has not independently \u200cconfirmed the \u2060state media report.<\/p>\n
The Presidential Guard rallied to Tiani’s defence, three security sources said. Tiani had not made any public appearances as of Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
Niger, a West African nation rich in uranium, oil and gold resources, has been ruled by military officers since a July 2023 coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.<\/p>\n
SAHEL LEADERS STRUGGLE AGAINST JIHADISTS<\/strong><\/p>\n Tiani, like his counterparts in \u200bBurkina Faso and Mali, has \u200bfailed to make progress \u2060against jihadists.<\/p>\n The Islamic State affiliate has staged multiple deadly assaults on the military in southwest Niger, including one earlier this month that killed 18 soldiers.<\/p>\n The mutineers’ operation involved soldiers based \u200bin Niamey as well as soldiers from the localities of Ouallam, Tera and Dosso, \u200bwhere the army \u2060has sustained heavy casualties.<\/p>\n Analysts and security sources say frustration with the government is mounting within frontline units, creating another vulnerability for Tiani beyond the insurgents themselves.<\/p>\n Since seizing power, Tiani’s government has shifted away from Western partners, deepened ties with Russia and \u2060broken with \u200bthe regional ECOWAS bloc.<\/p>\n The unrest comes as authorities tighten control over \u200bthe uranium sector, having\u00a0seized assets\u00a0from France’s Orano. Niger had been a key supplier of nuclear fuel to Europe, accounting for about 15% of Orano’s \u200buranium supply at full capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Niger said it had regained control of a \u200bkey military airbase in the capital Niamey after an\u00a0attack\u00a0by mutinous soldiers on Saturday, in the latest \u200cchallenge to military ruler Abdourahamane Tiani as his government struggles to contain a jihadist insurgency. The attack highlighted tensions within Niger’s armed forces, which have suffered repeated battlefield losses while fighting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,33,27],"tags":[1310,1373,383],"class_list":["post-21908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-politics","category-west-africa","tag-abdourahamane-tiani","tag-niamey","tag-niger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21910,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21908\/revisions\/21910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}