Gunfire broke out early on Thursday at the airport in Niger’s capital, Niamey, residents told AFP, several months after a major jihadist attack targeted the facility.
“I heard the first shots around 6 o’clock (0500 GMT). The shooting was coming from the airport entrance” and continued for another two hours, a resident told media by telephone.
Another resident also confirmed that the gunfire came from the airport entrance.
In January, jihadists launched an unprecedented attack on the capital’s Diori Hamani International Airport. The Islamic State in the Sahel (EIS) claimed responsibility, but Nigerien armed forces, supported by allied Russian fighters, repelled the assault.
Before that incident, jihadist attacks had largely remained confined to other regions of the country.
Following the attack, authorities demolished thousands of illegally constructed homes in a densely populated neighbourhood near the airport.
Officials said jihadists had infiltrated the area to stage the assault.
Niger, a vast country in the Sahel region of West Africa, has spent the past decade battling insurgent groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.