NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — A group of soldiers in Niger rebelled against officers at a key military base and fired at sensitive locations in the capital, Niamey, in an apparent mutiny and threat to the country’s struggling junta, authorities said Saturday.
Sustained gunfire and explosions were heard overnight into Saturday, including at Niamey's main airport that houses the military air base and in a district where the presidential palace is located. Security forces were deployed to key locations.
By Saturday evening, the situation remained tense with the mutineers camped at the airport while the presidential guard remained in control of the presidency, according to several analysts and one diplomat. The whereabouts of military leader Abdourahamane Tchiani are unclear.
The unrest appeared to have been triggered by grievances over the country’s security woes and the incessant killing of security forces, analysts said. Some of the mutinous soldiers came from the southwest of the country, among the regions worst-hit by insecurity, according to one European diplomat.
Niger's junta came to power after a 2023 coup which it said was prompted by the elected government's inability to stem armed violence. Since then, the impoverished West African country of more than 25 million people has severed ties with longtime Western security partners, turning instead to Russia. But the junta has been unable to stem jihadi violence and rampant killing of security forces, fueling unrest within the military, observers say.
Niger’s Defense Minister Gen. Salifou Mody said a group of soldiers took some officers hostage at the base and shot at “sensitive sites” in a “break with the discipline and military regulations.”
Security forces were deployed around the airport and in the Plateau district, and the situation at key military barracks remained unclear.
Niger requests help of Russia's Africa Corps
The ruling military council, known as the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, called for unity. “Our Defense and Security Forces are mobilized for the Defense of the Fatherland. Let us remain united, vigilant and supportive,” it said in a Facebook post.
State broadcaster RTN stopped its live transmission for some time on Saturday morning, but later resumed its broadcast.
Nigerien military authorities have requested the assistance of Russia’s Africa Corps to “suppress” the mutiny, Russian media quoted Moscow’s ambassador to Niger Viktor Voropayev as saying. The Africa Corps is stationed at the base at the airport from where they provide security support to Niger.
“The mutineers are ordered to lay down their arms,” the ambassador was quoted as saying. He did not say whether the requested support was being provided.
Algeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the country has assured Niger, its southeastern neighbor, of its “full solidarity and firm support, with a view to overcoming this ordeal and promoting a rapid return to stability.”
Niger's military junta has struggled to stem violence, fueling unrest
It is the third time this year that the base at the Diori Hamani International Airport has been attacked, after two earlier assaults by jihadi rebels.
The attacks are “becoming commonplace and will continue to fuel unrest and aggravate tensions within the army ranks,” said Heni Nsaibia, West Africa senior analyst at Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a conflict monitor.
“Deteriorating insecurity drove the coups that swept across the central Sahel, and the latest events show how these same pressures are now fueling unrest within the militaries that seized power,” Nsaibia said.
The airport is a strategic hub that hosts a Nigerien air force base as well as the headquarters of the joint Niger-Burkina Faso-Mali military force. All three countries are now under military rule, following a string of coups in Africa’s Sahel region, but are struggling with insecurity.
The mutiny adds to pressure on the military authorities, which have been unable to contain deadly jihadi violence.
Before the 2023 coup, Niger had been the West’s last reliable partner in the region in battling jihadists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in the Sahel.
However, the country's security forces, aided by Russia's Africa Corps, have been overstretched on multiple fronts by jihadi groups whose repeated attacks in the last year have resulted in mass casualties within the military.
