{"id":4167,"date":"2026-01-29T23:55:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/heavy-gunfire-and-explosions-near-niamey-airport-in-niger"},"modified":"2026-01-30T00:34:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:34:59","slug":"heavy-gunfire-and-explosions-near-niamey-airport-in-niger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/heavy-gunfire-and-explosions-near-niamey-airport-in-niger","title":{"rendered":"Heavy Gunfire and Explosions Near Niamey Airport in Niger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>A witness cited by Reuters reported hearing heavy gunfire and loud explosions early Thursday near Niamey International Airport in Niger.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Informed sources in Niger revealed hidden dimensions behind the armed and violent attack that targeted Niamey International Airport and Air Base (101) early Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>According to the information, the operation was not merely a routine show of force by armed groups, but rather a \u201csurgical operation\u201d aimed\u2014according to the sources\u2014at a disputed strategic shipment of uranium.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cAreva\u201d (now Orano), which was forced to leave Niger\u2014placing the attack at the center of a struggle for influence between Moscow and Paris over energy resources in the Sahel.<\/p>\n<p>The sources said documents and information indicated that Niger\u2019s authorities had been in a state of maximum security alert for two weeks before the attack.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cimminent terrorist attack\u201d on the airport.<\/p>\n<p>The documents indicate that intelligence warned that an Al-Qaeda-linked \u201ccommando\u201d from the \u201cNusrat al-Islam\u201d group was hiding in the airport district adjacent to the vital facility.<\/p>\n<p>They added that drone patrols were intensified to an unprecedented degree over Niamey, in what local circles described as \u201csecurity paranoia\u201d by General Tiani\u2019s regime\u2014yet the attack, they said, proved those fears warranted.<\/p>\n<p>They noted that a \u201cBamako\u201d 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 \u201cNusrat al-Islam\u201d (Al-Qaeda) group, which previously carried out a similar high-profile attack targeting Bamako\u2019s military airport and the gendarmerie school in Mali on September 17, 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Linking the two events, they said, reinforces the group\u2019s strategy of striking \u201csovereign symbols\u201d and fortified facilities\u2014while, in Niamey\u2019s case, exploiting the sensitive international context related to uranium transport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Africa<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-4167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-policy","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Heavy Gunfire and Explosions Near Niamey Airport in Niger - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. 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