The gunmen attacked the nation’s largest airport on 18th June, killing 35 people, according to Nigerian authorities, in the second attack in under five months.

The residents of the predominantly Muslim nation reported hearing noises of explosions and gunshots from Diori Hamani International Airport, in the capital city of Niamey after their morning prayers.

The defence ministry in Niger reported that the dead were 22 assailants, 11 soldiers and two civilians.

Al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) claimed that it was behind the attack on Thursday evening.

Niger has long been grappling with a Muslim extremist insurgency, and in January an organisation affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group took responsibility for an attack on the same airport.

By the middle of Thursday, the violence had died down, and police had been hunting down the remaining attackers.

“We completed our prayers around 05:50 (04:50 GMT), and we heard a loud noise like a tyre exploding soon after, said Lawalli Tsalha, who lives near the airport, also home to a military base.”

“It just wasn’t until a little later that we knew what was going on.”

Authorities said alongside the 22 attackers that were killed, another four were wounded. 

“There were 20 suspects arrested,” they said.

Also seized were a large cache of weapons, like RPG-7 launchers and AK-47 rifles, explosives, grenades, communications materials and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

With the help of armed local residents, the manhunt ensued, but witnesses told the BBC that security forces tried to prevent the public from getting involved.

It was not easy to locate them, and one resident who refused to give their name said: “The attackers blended in with the local people, so civilians picked up machetes and sticks to defend themselves and strike any stranger that got in their way.”

The area around the airport had been sealed off on Thursday afternoon; police were searching vehicles coming and going.

The defence ministry has only stated that “armed mercenaries” sponsored by France were responsible for the attack, in a televised statement, where it did not present any evidence.

France had yet to comment at this time.

The military, which seized power in a July 2023 coup, has frosty relations with France and regularly accuses it of trying to destabilise Niger, which it denies.

Since the coup, Niger has been home to French troops who have been replaced by Russian military contractors.

The “assault on the nation’s airport” was “highly regrettable,” the African Union (AU) Commission chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, said, adding that he was “satisfied” with “the efforts of the Nigerien forces that made it possible to repel the attack and secure airport facilities.”

Niger’s most sensitive security installations include the Diori Hamani international airport, which is a civilian aviation hub and a military base.

It also has facilities associated with the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), with which the country shares borders, namely Mali and Burkina Faso.

All three countries are run by juntas that came to power in part because of a failure to deal with years of jihadist violence in the region.

Four military personnel were injured and 20 attackers killed in the attack on the airport in January, Niger’s defence ministry said.

At the time, the head of Niger’s military government, which has been in power for three years, thanked Russia for its help in foiling the attack. Abdourahamane Tiani also blamed the presidents of France, Benin and the Ivory Coast for supporting those responsible.

He did not give details of what help Russia had provided or provide any evidence to support his accusations against the other countries.

Authorities in the past few weeks have blown up areas around the airport in Niger, stating that these areas are under “terrorist threat”.

They have also increased the airport’s perimeter fence and added over 350 surveillance cameras, reports AFP.