Islamists kill 20 in Niger suicide attacks

Islamist suicide bombers struck an army barracks and a French-run uranium mine in Niger yesterday, officials said, killing 20 people and wounding dozens more in attacks that showed militant violence spreading across West Africa.

The coordinated dawn assault on Areva’s mine at Arlit and the milit-ary base in Agadez were claimed by the Mujwa militant group in retal-iation for a French-led offensive this year against Islamist insurgents in neighbouring Mali.

The attacks suggested Malian groups, despite the French campaign, remained capable of complex strikes against high-profile targets in parts of the Sahara far from their bases.

In Agadez, the largest town in Niger’s desert north, at least 20 soldiers were killed and 16 injured when suicide bombers attacked the barracks, Defence Minister Mahamadou Karidjo told state radio. Three Islamists were also killed.

After a fierce gunbattle, security forces restored calm but one Islamist was holding at least three military cadets hostage in a house.

Further north in Arlit, at least 14 civilians were injured and two Islamists killed in a car bomb attack at Areva’s Somair mine, the largest in the country. Areva later said one of its injured staff had died.

Mujwa and al-Qaeda’s North African wing Aqim had pledged to strike French interests in the region after Paris launched a ground and air campaign in January, breaking their 10-month grip over the northern two-thirds of Mali.

President François Hollande said France would do everything in its power to defend its Niger interests.

President Mahamadou Issoufou, who has emerged as a strong ally of France and the US against Islamists in the region, cancelled a trip to an African Union summit in Ethiopia.

The US has stationed drone surveillance aircraft in Niger and deployed military personnel there to train West African forces before their deployment in Mali.

Yesterday’s bold attacks were the first in Niger since the French-led offensive drove Islamist insurgents across borders into neighbouring Sahel states, stirring fears of a radicalisation of Islam in the traditionally moderate region.

The official ANP state news agency said the militants had entered Niger via lawless southern Libya, carrying explosive belts which they used in their attack.

In Agadez, a suicide bomber drove a Toyota truck through the barrier of the military base at around 5.30am and detonated his explosives when soldiers fired.

Areva strongly condemned the attack on its staff. “We express our solidarity with the government and the people of Niger in this common trial,” it said in a statement.

Aside from Islamist threats in its north, Niger also faces militants along its southern border with Nigeria. Its forces recently took part in a joint operation against Boko Haram Islamists in the Nigerian frontier town of Baga.