*Report: Russia helps junta to retake military base
Sunday Ehigiator
Niger Republic’s ruling junta yesterday said that it “gradually took back control” after mutinying soldiers attacked key sites around the capital including the presidential palace, after the city was rocked by hours of heavy gunfire.
Reports claimed the members of Niger’s presidential guard, helped by Russian forces, recaptured a key military base in the capital, Niamey, from the mutinous soldiers.
“The presidential guard has retaken control of the air base with the help of the Russians,” a diplomatic source told AFP.
The source added that several of the rebelling soldiers had been killed.
As the clashes broke out, soldiers blocked access to the presidential palace and national television, with Tele Sahel going off air for just over an hour yesterday morning before being restored around 10:00 am (0900 GMT).
“There was an attempt by insurgents from the Nigerien armed forces to enter the presidential palace,” a security source told AFP, adding that “they were pushed back by the presidential guard”.
Niger’s Defence Minister, General Salifou Mody, in a statement read on state television, said a group of soldiers held some troops hostage at a barracks in Niamey and opened fire at “certain sensitive sites” in the city, without naming them.
“The prompt reaction of the defence and security forces made it possible to contain this heated moment and they gradually took back control of these sites,” he added.
Mody’s statement called on the people to “remain calm and freely go about their business”.
Niger has been ruled for three years by a military junta that has struggled to contain jihadist violence flaring in the West African country for around a decade.
An African diplomat in Niamey said for now the presidential guard was still loyal to ruler General Abdourahamane Tiani.
“Everything is calm again, we can’t hear any more shooting,” a resident of the Yantala district close to the presidential palace said late Saturday morning.
Gunfire began in the early hours of Saturday morning, prompting the military to issue a statement on its social media pages urging people to stay calm and “avoid sharing unverified information”.
“Our defence and security forces have been mobilised for the defence of the homeland,” the statement said.
One local resident told AFP that there was “heavy gunfire and explosions” at Base 101 in Niamey, a claim confirmed by several other witnesses.
The first shots were heard at about 1:00 am local time and continued until daybreak, according to a video published by a local journalist filming the area around the airport.
Another local resident said he heard “bursts of gunfire” at about 7:00 am local time, adding that the weapons heard” are not the kind that terrorists on motorbikes can carry”.
“I went to get credit for my phone. I saw a military vehicle heading towards the base that had to turn back,” he said.
Another resident west of Niamey said he heard sporadic small arms fire at about 5:00 am.
Videos online showed armoured vehicles deployed to reinforce the neighbourhood near the airport.
Niamey airport has been targeted twice this year by jihadists, first by the Islamic State in the Sahel (EIS) in January, then in late June by its rival, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), the Sahel branch of Al-Qaeda.
The jihadist groups not only target civilians and the military but are also struggling for dominance over each other in the Sahel, and especially in Niger.
Twenty assailants were killed and four soldiers wounded in the January assault, authorities said at the time.