Loyalist forces in Niger appear to have crushed an attempted coup, reclaiming key locations across the capital after a night of gunfire and explosions echoed through Niamey. By Saturday morning, the country’s military rulers had regained the upper hand over the mutineers who struck at dawn.
Progress in retaking the sites hit during the overnight assault was confirmed by the defense ministry late in the morning, though the attack had reached both the presidential palace and Diori Hamani International Airport. Mutineers had not been fully dislodged from the airport, security sources said, describing the wider picture as still murky.
Locals reported a black screen in place of normal programming when state television and radio dropped off air during the fighting. Once transmissions came back, a message on state TV described mutinous soldiers from a Niamey base firing on sensitive sites, adding that security forces had moved fast to contain the disturbance.
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Insurgents from within the armed forces had tried to force their way into the palace but were repelled by the presidential guard, a security source told AFP. Loyalist troops had secured the palace as of 0900 GMT, according to two security sources and a diplomat, while the airport perimeter remained a flashpoint.
For Abdourahamane Tiani, who took power in the 2023 coup that removed President Mohamed Bazoum, the revolt is the newest challenge to his rule. Soldiers drawn from the southwestern localities of Ouallam, Tera and Dosso were part of the assault, a Niger security source and Yvan Guichaoua, a senior researcher at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies, said. Units on that front have suffered heavy losses battling the regional Islamic State affiliate, and analysts point to rising anger toward the government among frontline forces.
Behind the turmoil sits a hardening state grip on uranium. Assets were recently seized from France’s Orano, which counted on Niger for roughly 15% of its uranium supply at full capacity, and former Orano and GoviEx permits were handed to state-backed companies last week.
