Niger's junta leader accuses France, Benin and Ivory Coast of being
behind airport attack
[January 30, 2026]
By MARK BANCHEREAU
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Niger's military leader has accused the presidents
of France, Benin and Ivory Coast of supporting armed groups that
attacked an air force base in the capital, wounding four soldiers and
damaging an aircraft.
Niger's forces responded quickly to the assault early Thursday, killing
20 of the attackers and arresting 11 others, state television reported.
“We remind the sponsors of those mercenaries, who are Emmanuel Macron
(president of France), Patrice Talon (president of Benin) and Alassane
Ouattara (president of Ivory Coast), we have sufficiently heard them
bark, and they should now in turn be prepared to hear us roar,” Gen.
Abdourahamane Tchiani told state television late Thursday.
He didn't provide any evidence to back up his accusation.
Videos that appear to be from the scene captured loud blasts and the sky
glowing following explosions that began around midnight and lasted about
two hours in the area of Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey,
the capital of the West African country.
Niamey’s airport is a strategic hub that hosts military bases, the
headquarters of the Niger-Burkina Faso-Mali Joint Force, and a large
uranium stockpile at the center of a dispute with French nuclear company
Orano.
West African airline Air Côte d’Ivoire said that one of its aircraft,
parked on the tarmac of the Niamey airport, was hit during the exhange
of gunfire, resulting in impacts to the aircraft’s fuselage and right
wing.
Niger state television reported that one of the assailants killed was a
French national, as footage showed several bloodied bodies on the
ground. It provided no evidence.
No armed group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
Niger has struggled to contain deadly jihadi violence that has battered
parts of Africa’s Sahel region, where neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali
also are run by military juntas.
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In this image taken from video provided by ORTN, Gen. Abdourahmane
Tchiani makes a statement, July 28, 2023, in Niamey, Niger. (ORTN
via AP, File)
In 2025, al-Qaida and Islamic State group-backed militants escalated
their campaigns in the Sahel, further threatening the stability of
the fragile region and of Niger, which was the key security ally of
the West in the region until a 2023 military coup.
Since seizing power, Niger’s military rulers — along with those in
neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso — have cut ties with France and
other Western powers and turned to Russia for military support to
fight insurgencies.
The juntas regularly accuse the presidents of Benin and Ivory Coast,
two West African countries that maintain close relations with
France, of acting as proxies for Paris.
Under the military juntas, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have seen a
surge in attacks and have become more vulnerable to the armed
groups, experts say.
The sophistication and boldness of the airport attack in Niger —
including the possible use of drones — suggest that the assailants
may have had inside help, said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel
program at Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Laessing said Friday that earlier successful attacks elsewhere in
the region appear to have increased the groups’ confidence, leading
them to target more sensitive and strategically important sites.
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