{"id":44085,"date":"2026-08-30T10:46:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T08:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=44085"},"modified":"2026-08-30T10:46:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T08:46:51","slug":"explosions-gunfire-at-nigers-niamey-airport-presidency-perimeter","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/explosions-gunfire-at-nigers-niamey-airport-presidency-perimeter\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Explosions, gunfire at Niger&#8217;s Niamey airport, \u00a0Presidency perimeter&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Sustained gunfire and explosions rang out across several areas of Niger&#8217;s capital, Niamey, early \u200cSaturday morning, according to two <i>Reuters<\/i> witnesses, with the cause not immediately clear.<\/div>\n<div>It marked the third time that the city and specifically a complex housing the international airport and a military airbase had experienced major unrest this year, underscoring persistent insecurity under the military-led \u200bgovernment which seized power in a coup in 2023, vowing to restore order.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A security source told <i>Reuters<\/i> \u200bthat &#8220;terrorists&#8221; had attacked Diori Hamani International Airport and attempted to breach the security perimeter around \u2060the presidency. One <i>Reuters<\/i> witness reported heavy gunfire in the area near the presidency.<\/div>\n<div>Bana Wagana Ibrahim, a member of \u200bNiger&#8217;s Bureau of the Consultative Council and a Deputy in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) Parliament, said on Facebook \u200bthat attackers had targeted the military airbase, known as Base 101, but that security forces had regained control.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Another cowardly attack on Base 101 and once again our defence and security forces ensured, situation under control,&#8221; Ibrahim wrote.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>However, a <i>Reuters<\/i> witness reported further gunfire at \u200bthe airport and heavy explosions in the pre-dawn hours after Ibrahim&#8217;s post was published.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A second security source told <i>Reuters<\/i> \u200bthat security forces had launched sweeping operations and that the attackers had been &#8220;neutralised&#8221;, with others fleeing.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i>Reuters<\/i> could not independently verify the accounts \u200cprovided \u2060by Ibrahim and the security sources. Niger&#8217;s military government was not immediately available for comment.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34965,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-44085","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"One Reuters witness reported heavy gunfire in the area near the presidency.","published_date":"","news_description":"One Reuters witness reported heavy gunfire in the area near the presidency.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44132,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44085\/revisions\/44132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}