No involvement of our soldiers engaged in the Misin mission. The Jnim Jihadist militias in action. Russian troops also at the base. Suspicions over an attempted theft of uranium for Moscow.
Around midnight, between January 28 and 29, shots and explosions were heard near the Diori Hamani international airport in Niamey, the capital of Niger, with the situation normalizing only after a couple of hours. During this time period two passenger planes bound for Niamey, one from Belgium and one from Algeria, were diverted to Nigeria and Burkina Faso. The fact assumes a certain relevance since at this military base, called “101”, Italian soldiers have also been deployed since 2018 in the bilateral MISIN mission, sharing the site with the Russian Africa Corps present in Niger since the spring of 2024. According to what was reported by Agenzia Nova, four of our soldiers were immediately secured in our embassy, as stated by the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani from Brussels. In addition to these troops, the air base is home to the Nigerian Air Force’s Remotely Controlled Aircraft Branch which operates Turkish-built Bayraktar TB-2 drones. From the first reports collected, it seems that they were shots coming from small arms fired together with anti-aircraft fire against some unidentified aircraft and whose presence was not even confirmed. What appears to have happened instead is that unidentified personnel, presumably belonging to the “Jnim” force, opened fire on Nigerian troops, also causing the burning of some airport service vehicles. The name is the acronym of Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or the Support Group for Islam and Muslims also known as the Support Front for Islam and Muslims, a military and terrorist organization of Salafist jihadist ideology. On January 25, these militiamen had already hit a vehicle of the Nigerien Armed Forces with an improvised explosive device about six kilometers from the capital. It is therefore believed that JNIM teams are active in the area and may have joined the fighters of the ISSP, the Islamic State of the Sahel Province. The Italian Ministry of Defense has released a note in which it is reassured that our soldiers do not appear to have been involved in any way in the actions. The attack may have had the objective of seizing a shipment of uranium from the Arlit mine destined for Russia. Niger has hosted Russian soldiers since April two years ago, when around a hundred military instructors belonging to the Africa Corps arrived at Niamey airport. This is a Corps formed at the end of 2023 to replace the organization established by the Wagner Group. The Misin mission of the Italian government provides support in the Republic of Niger, carrying out a series of tasks such as supporting the local government as part of a joint European and US effort for the stabilization of the area and the strengthening of the territorial control capabilities of the Niger authorities and the G5 Sahel countries (Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Burkina Faso), for the increase in capabilities aimed at combating the phenomenon of illegal trafficking and security threats; participates in border and territorial surveillance activities and in the development of the air component of the Republic of Niger; as well as trains the security forces and government institutions in Nigeria. Over time it has been strengthened from 350 to 500 units, also deploying around a hundred land vehicles and five air vehicles. The USA, although no longer collaborating directly with the Nigerians, has around a thousand men in two bases, Niger Air Base 201 (in Agadez), where they operate with Mq-9 Reaper drones and other aircraft carrying out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities; and also from Base 101 in Niamey.
