At least 35 people are dead after heavily armed gunmen stormed Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger, on Thursday morning — the second attack on the strategic facility in less than five months, according to Niger’s defence ministry.
The ministry said the dead include 22 assailants, 11 soldiers, and two civilians. Residents near the airport, which also houses a military base and facilities linked to the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), told the BBC they heard explosions and gunfire shortly after dawn prayers. Security forces have since locked down the area and launched a manhunt.
No group has claimed responsibility. Niger has been battling a decade-long jihadist insurgency, and the junta-led government had in January accused neighbouring Benin and Ivory Coast — along with France — of backing the earlier attack on the same airport.
Nigerian authorities should take note: the Sahel security crisis continues to spill across borders, with implications for regional stability and counter-terrorism coordination under the AES bloc.
