Africa-Press. A witness cited by Reuters reported hearing heavy gunfire and loud explosions early Thursday near Niamey International Airport in Niger.
The witness said the intense gunfire, which began about an hour earlier, continued until 00:12 GMT. A video posted on social media platform X showed what appeared to be the city skyline at night lit up by weapons fire.
Informed sources in Niger revealed hidden dimensions behind the armed and violent attack that targeted Niamey International Airport and Air Base (101) early Thursday.
According to the information, the operation was not merely a routine show of force by armed groups, but rather a “surgical operation” aimed—according to the sources—at a disputed strategic shipment of uranium.
They explained that the attack was carefully planned to coincide with the presence of a massive uranium shipment at the airport, whose final destination was likely Russia. This shipment had reportedly become the subject of intense international contention, with France registering strong objections, arguing that the cargo belonged to “Areva” (now Orano), which was forced to leave Niger—placing the attack at the center of a struggle for influence between Moscow and Paris over energy resources in the Sahel.
The sources said documents and information indicated that Niger’s authorities had been in a state of maximum security alert for two weeks before the attack.
They explained that on Friday, January 16, 2026, the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) held an emergency meeting bringing together all security services (police, customs, gendarmerie, and intelligence) to confront what intelligence sources described as an “imminent terrorist attack” on the airport.
The documents indicate that intelligence warned that an Al-Qaeda-linked “commando” from the “Nusrat al-Islam” group was hiding in the airport district adjacent to the vital facility.
They added that drone patrols were intensified to an unprecedented degree over Niamey, in what local circles described as “security paranoia” by General Tiani’s regime—yet the attack, they said, proved those fears warranted.
They noted that a “Bamako” scenario was repeating itself: in terms of execution method and the accused parties, the attack was described as a replica of the tactics of the “Nusrat al-Islam” (Al-Qaeda) group, which previously carried out a similar high-profile attack targeting Bamako’s military airport and the gendarmerie school in Mali on September 17, 2024.
Linking the two events, they said, reinforces the group’s strategy of striking “sovereign symbols” and fortified facilities—while, in Niamey’s case, exploiting the sensitive international context related to uranium transport.
