Niger: 20 dead after barracks and mine attack

Islamist suicide bombers struck an army barracks and a French-run uranium mine in Niger, killing 20 people and wounding dozens more.

The co-ordinated dawn assault yesterday on Areva’s mine at Arlit and the barracks in Agadez were claimed by the MUJWA militant group in retaliation for a French-led offensive this year against insurgents in neighbouring Mali.

In Agadez, the largest town in Niger’s desert north, at least 20 soldiers were killed and 16 injured, defence minister Mahamadou Karidjo said. Three Islamists were also killed.

After a gun battle, security forces restored calm but one Islamist was holding at least three military cadets hostage in a house, officials said.

Further north in Arlit, at least 14 civilians were injured and two Islamists killed in a car bomb attack at Areva’s Somair mine. Areva later said one of its injured staff had died.

Niger officials said crushing and grinding units had been badly damaged at the Somair mine, which is an important part of France’s energy supply chain. Niger provides around one-fifth of the uranium for France’s many nuclear reactors.