DAKAR, Senegal — Niger’s military leader has accused the presidents of France, Benin and Ivory Coast of supporting armed groups that attacked an air force base in the capital, wounding four soldiers and damaging an aircraft.
Niger’s forces responded quickly to the assault early Thursday, killing 20 of the attackers and arresting 11 others, state television reported.
“We remind the sponsors of those mercenaries, who are Emmanuel Macron (president of France), Patrice Talon (president of Benin) and Alassane Ouattara (president of Ivory Coast), we have sufficiently heard them bark, and they should now in turn be prepared to hear us roar,” Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani told state television late Thursday.
He didn’t provide any evidence to back up his accusation.
Videos that appear to be from the scene captured loud blasts and the sky glowing following explosions that began around midnight and lasted about two hours in the area of Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, the capital of the West African country.
Niamey’s airport is a strategic hub that hosts military bases, the headquarters of the Niger-Burkina Faso-Mali Joint Force, and a large uranium stockpile at the center of a dispute with French nuclear company Orano.
West African airline Air Côte d’Ivoire said th