There was pandemonium on Thursday morning when gunfire erupted at the airport in Niger’s capital, Niamey, several months after a major jihadist attack at the facility.

The first shooting, which reportedly took place at 6:00 am, was said to have come from the airport’s entrance and continued two hours later.

NEWSMEN recalls that in January, Diori Hamani international airport in the capital was targeted in an unprecedented attack claimed by the Islamic State in the Sahel, EIS, and repelled by Nigerien armed forces and allied Russian fighters.

Before then, jihadist violence in Niger had been contained to other parts of the country.

After the attack, thousands of illegally built homes were torn down in a sprawling neighbourhood near the airport, while authorities said the district had been infiltrated by jihadists to carry out the attack.
NEWSMEN reports that Niger, a country in West Africa’s Sahel region, has for a decade battled violence by armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.