{"id":113138,"date":"2026-01-29T11:39:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=113138"},"modified":"2026-01-29T11:39:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:39:06","slug":"heavy-gunfire-and-blasts-heard-near-airport-in-nigers-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=113138","title":{"rendered":"Heavy gunfire and blasts heard near airport in Niger\u2019s capital"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sustained heavy gunfire and loud explosions have been heard in Niger near the international airport outside the capital, Niamey.<\/p>\n

Multiple eyewitness accounts and videos showed air defence systems apparently engaging unidentified projectiles in the early hours of Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"Heavy<\/figure>\n

The situation later calmed down, reports say, with an official reportedly saying the situation was now under control, without elaborating.<\/p>\n

It is not clear what caused the blasts, or if there were any casualties. There has been no official statement from the military government.<\/p>\n

The gunfire and blasts began shortly after midnight, according to residents of a neighbourhood near the Diori Hamani International Airport, the AFP news agency reports. They said calm returned after two hours.<\/p>\n

The airport houses an air force base and is located about 10km (six miles) from the presidential palace.<\/p>\n

Niger is led by Abdourahamane Tiani who seized power in a 2023 coup that ousted the country\u2019s elected civilian president.<\/p>\n

Like its neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali, the country has been fighting jihadist groups who have carried out deadly attacks across the region.<\/p>\n

It is also a major producer of uranium.<\/p>\n

A huge uranium shipment destined for export has been stuck at the airport amid unresolved legal and diplomatic complications with France after the military government nationalised the country\u2019s uranium mines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is under control. There is no need to worry,\u201d the Anadolu news agency quoted a Foreign Affairs ministry official as saying, without elaborating.<\/p>\n

The official told the agency they were trying to determine whether the gunfire was linked to the uranium shipment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"HeavySustained heavy gunfire and loud explosions have been heard in Niger near the international airport outside the capital, Niamey.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3672,16094,1910,16095,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-airport","category-heavy-gunfire","category-international","category-nigers-capital","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/113139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}