Niger’s transitional leader, Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, said in a July 26 RTN interview marking the third anniversary of the 2023 coup that the Sahel alliance plans to grow its joint force from 5,000 to 18,000 troops, and claimed French intelligence had equipped the militants behind a June 18 assault on Niamey’s airport, adding that French intelligence was “working to attempt a third attack.”
ACLED documents the January 2026 Niamey airport attack as part of a broader pattern of Islamic State-Sahel Province and JNIM strikes on Niger’s infrastructure, with JNIM’s drone strikes rising from fewer than 10 in 2024 to roughly 80 in 2025.
The January 29 attack wounded four soldiers and killed 20 attackers, and Tchiani accused Macron, Benin’s Talon, and Ivory Coast’s Ouattara by name of sponsoring it, saying “they should be ready to hear us roar,” according to Reuters, which noted he offered no evidence.
French Armed Forces spokesman Colonel Guillaume Vernet, per Le Figaro, rejected the accusations, saying “there can be no question of French involvement,” dismissing the claims as disinformation.
Benin’s government spokesman rejected the claim on the record, saying Tchiani was “the only one to believe that nonsense,” according to Al Jazeera.
Analysts at Critical Threats attribute Niger’s escalating attacks partly to rivalry between JNIM and Islamic State-Sahel Province, each seeking to outbid the other for influence.
