Niger: Jihadist Threats Persist After the Malian Intervention

Militants displaced by French military operations in Mali will continue to pose a threat to Western assets throughout the Sahel and to African states that participated in the Malian intervention. Evidence of this threat was seen May 23 in Arlit, a town in neighboring Niger, when suicide bombers detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device at a uranium mine owned by France's Areva and Niger's Somair.

Militants concurrently attacked a Nigerien military base in Agadez with a similar device. Already claimed by the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, the attack was the first of its kind in Niger, which was partly targeted because of the role it played in combating jihadists in Mali. We can expect regional countries, as well as Western countries active in the region, to bolster security for their assets in anticipation of future attacks, though France is unlikely to reassess its military drawdown.