2026-08-29T09:26:24Z<\/p>\n
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) \u2014 Heavy gunfire and explosions were heard overnight into Saturday morning in Niger\u2019s capital of Niamey, including near the main airport and in an area housing the presidential palace, according to an Associated Press witness and local media.<\/p>\n
Sustained gunfire began past midnight at the premises of the Diori Hamani International Airport, which hosts a major military base, according to an AP witness who requested anonymity for safety reasons. It is the third time this year the airport has experienced unrest.<\/p>\n
Local media also reported gunshots ringing out from the Plateau administrative district, where the Presidential Palace and key institutions are located.<\/p>\n
The ruling military council, known as the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, said the military has been deployed. \u201cOur Defence and Security Forces are mobilized for the Defense of the Fatherland. Let us remain united, vigilant and supportive,\u201d it said in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear what caused the gunfire and explosions although a local lawmaker called it a \u201ccowardly attack.\u201d The airport area had been attacked twice by jihadis in recent months as pressure mounts on Niger\u2019s struggling military junta.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2026-08-29T09:26:24Z NIAMEY, Niger (AP) \u2014 Heavy gunfire and explosions were heard overnight into Saturday morning in Niger\u2019s capital of Niamey, including near the main airport and in an area housing the presidential palace, according to an Associated Press witness and local media. Sustained gunfire began past midnight at the premises of the Diori Hamani International… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}