Gunfire, blasts heard in attempted mutiny in Niger’s capital Niamey

A group of soldiers in Niger has rebelled against officers at a key military base and fired at sensitive locations in the capital, Niamey, in an apparent collective mutiny, authorities say.

Sustained gunfire and explosions were heard overnight into Saturday in the city, including at the main airport that houses the military airbase, known as Base 101, and in the Plateau administrative district, where the presidential palace and key institutions are located.

By late morning, Niger’s Ministry of Defence ⁠said the armed forces were progressively retaking control of sites targeted in the overnight attack, but security sources said mutineers were still present at the airport and the overall situation remained unclear.

The incident marks the third time the city – and specifically the main airport – has experienced major unrest this year, underscoring persistent insecurity under Niger’s military-led government that seized power in a coup in 2023 and pledged to restore order.

Bana Wagana Ibrahim, a member of Niger’s Bureau of the Consultative Council and a deputy ⁠in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) parliament, said on Facebook that attackers had targeted Base 101 but that security forces had regained control.

“Another cowardly attack on Base 101 and once again our defence and security forces ensured … Situation under control,” Ibrahim wrote.

Videos online showed armoured vehicles deployed to reinforce the neighbourhood near the airport. Niger’s national television station was also cut off following the overnight gunfire in Niamey, residents told AFP news agency.

State television, after resuming broadcasts, aired a message saying mutinous soldiers from a base in Niamey had opened fire on “sensitive sites” in the city. Security forces had reacted quickly and “contained this disturbance”, it said.

One Niamey resident “described how the walls of her homes were shaking,” Al Jazeera’s West Africa correspondent Nicolas Haque said. “She lives by the airport by this base, Base 101, and then there are those that hid with their family members underneath the bed, and this gunfire lasted for hours.”

‘An attempt’ to overthrow the government

The assault involved soldiers from Ouallam, Tera, and Dosso in the southwest, ⁠according to a Niger security source and Yvan Guichaoua, senior researcher at the Bonn International Centre for ⁠Conflict Studies.

“Salifou Modi, the defence minister, is trying to negotiate with those soldiers,” Haque said, reporting from Dakar in Senegal. He added that Modi is concerned that some of the soldiers, many of whom come from front-line areas of the northwest, “are no longer listening to the orders of those that are in the capital, Niamey”.

Troops in this area have sustained heavy casualties in battles with the regional al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) affiliates, as security sources say frustration with the government is mounting within front-line units.

The mutiny “speaks of deeper institutional and structural challenges within the military”, Kabir Adamu, an Abuja-based security expert, told Al Jazeera.

There is an argument that “persons who have received significant training, both within and outside [the military] are now occupying political positions and are not in the front line where they are needed to address the complex security challenges facing the country”, he said. There are also the issues of equipment, repository, rotation of military forces.

“The grievances grew to a point where this mutiny sort of occurred,” said Adamu, the managing director at Beacon Security Innovations, adding: “as part of that mutiny, based on the places they targeted, it was clearly an attempt to overthrow the government.”

Niamey airport, where Base 101 is located, has been attacked twice this year by armed groups, first by ISIL (ISIS) affiliate, Islamic State in the Sahel, in January and then by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the Sahel branch of al-Qaeda, in June.

Base 101 is “the central command of the Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger’s Joint Forces base that is trying to repel those attacks from these armed groups,” Haque said. “But it’s also where uranium is being stored with a market value of around a quarter of a billion dollars.”

Niger, a mineral-rich West African nation with significant uranium, oil and gold resources, has been ruled by the military since a July 2023 coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

Since seizing power, General Abdourahamane Tchiani’s military government has shifted away from Western partners, deepened ties with Russia, and joined Mali and Burkina Faso in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a ⁠breakaway from the regional ECOWAS bloc.

“If [Tchiani] does not address the deep-rooted socioeconomic, cultural, environmental and security challenges that he promised when he took over power in July 2023, then those issues will continue to rear their head,” Adamu said.