A group linked to Al-Qaeda claimed Thursday’s attack on an airport in Niger’s capital, Niamey. The attack which killed at least 11 soldiers and two civilians, took place six months after other jihadists staged a large assault on the same facility.
Twenty-two attackers were also killed as security forces repelled the raid on the Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger’s defence ministry said.
Gunfire erupted early in the morning and rang out for hours near the airport, where a large military presence was later deployed, residents said.
In the evening, a statement from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, or JNIM using its Arabic acronym, said it had carried out “a suicide attack” on the airport and on a neighbouring military base. The group is Al-Qaeda’s Sahel branch.
Niger has been ruled for three years by a military junta, which has struggled to contain jihadist violence that has rocked the west African country for a decade.
Residents recall hearing the first shots which they said came from the airport entrance around 6 o’clock (0500 GMT).
An airport official had told the media that the gunmen had arrived at the checkpoint “by taxi”, then encountered “fierce resistance” from security forces.
The attackers some of whom wore explosive belts, according to the defence ministry were “dispersed in the surrounding neighbourhoods, where the security forces are carrying out vast sweeps”, the airport official said.
A statement by the defence ministry said four people had been wounded in the attack and “about 20 suspects” arrested. It said a large-scale army operation was under way and the “international airport, which is fully secure, remains open to air traffic”.
But data on tracking site Flightradar24 showed multiple flights bound for Niamey had been rerouted or delayed.
In January, the airport and an adjoining military drone base were targeted in an attack claimed by the Islamic State in the Sahel (EIS).
Nigerien armed forces and their Russian allies repelled the strike. At the time, Twenty assailants were killed and four soldiers were wounded in the January 29 assault, authorities said.