Niger suicide bombers target Areva mine and barracks
Security was stepped up at the Arlit mine this year
Suicide bombers have struck a military camp and a French-run uranium mine in two towns in north-west Niger.
A bomb at a barracks in Agadez killed at least 19, including
18 soldiers, officials told the BBC. Four attackers died and a fifth is
holding four army officers hostage.The attack on the Somair mine, in the town of Arlit, killed one person and injured 14, its operator Areva said.
The jihadist Mujao group said it had carried out the two attacks.
Mujao spokesman Abu Walid Sahraoui said the operations targeted "the enemies of Islam in Niger", according to Agence France-Presse.
"We attacked France, and Niger because of its co-operation with France, in the war against Sharia," he added, thought to be a reference to French and Nigerien involvement in combating Islamists in neighbouring Mali.
French President Francois Hollande vowed to protect his nation's interests and co-operate with Niger in its "fight against terrorism".
He said on a visit to Germany: "Everybody should know that we will let nothing pass, and support Niger's authorities in ending the hostage taking and destroying the group that carried out these attacks."
'Strong detonation' Both attacks were carried out as people prepared for the early morning prayer just after 05:00 local time (04:00 GMT), BBC West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy reports.
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There is little doubt that these two attacks are evidence of a
spill-over from the conflict in neighbouring Mali. However, although
Niger shares a border with Mali, the attackers are more likely to have
come through southern Libya, given the location of their targets in the
country's far north. This could confirm suspicions that fighters linked
to al-Qaeda had been on the move in the area.
But this would also be the bloodiest attack carried out since the French started their military campaign in Mali this year. The French nuclear company Areva had recently resumed rotations for its expat staff at the uranium site of Arlit. After seven workers at the site were taken hostage - three of them have since been released - two and half years ago, Niger had deployed extra troops to secure the mine. French special forces were also reportedly sent in. But militants have just shown how determined they are to strike across the region.
Analysis
But this would also be the bloodiest attack carried out since the French started their military campaign in Mali this year. The French nuclear company Areva had recently resumed rotations for its expat staff at the uranium site of Arlit. After seven workers at the site were taken hostage - three of them have since been released - two and half years ago, Niger had deployed extra troops to secure the mine. French special forces were also reportedly sent in. But militants have just shown how determined they are to strike across the region.
He says the army is patrolling in and around Agadez following the attack.
Abdoulaye Harouna, a resident of Agadez, told the Associated
Press: "We heard a strong detonation that woke the whole neighbourhood,
it was so powerful."Niger's Defence Minister Mahamadou Karidjo said insurgents had driven a car bomb into the military base there. Around two dozen people were wounded in the blast, including civilians.
"There is at least one remaining assailant that we are trying to capture," Mr Karidjo told the BBC.
He said the government had declared a three-day period of national mourning.
Further north in Arlit, a suicide bomber blew up a car close to workers at the mine operated by French nuclear company Areva.
It said one person had been killed and 14 were being treated in hospital. The company said operations at the mine had been "temporarily suspended".
"A man in military uniform driving a 4x4 packed with explosives mixed in with the Somair workers and blew up his vehicle in front of the power station at the uranium treatment facility," a mine employee told AFP news agency.
He said the bomber had also died in the blast.
Niger's Interior Minister Abdou Labo put the number of wounded at the site at about 50.
Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said French special forces had moved in to protect the site after dozens of hostages died when Islamist militants seized a gas plant in Algeria in January.
Seven workers, including five French nationals, were kidnapped from the Arlit mine by Islamist militants in 2010.
Four of them are still being held and it is believed they could be in northern Mali, close to where French troops were sent to oust al-Qaeda-linked militants in January.
Mujao (the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa) is a splinter group of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) which operates mostly in northern Mali.
It says its objective is to spread jihad to West Africa rather than confine itself to the Sahel and Maghreb regions - the main focus of AQIM.
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