Africa

Africa

Niger's president says Islamist militants also planned to attack Chad: media

27 May 2013 21:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Islamist militants staged last week's twin attacks in Niger were also planning assaults in Chad, said Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou on Monday in an interview with FRANCE 24, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"This attack against Niger was prepared in parallel with another attack aimed at Chad," said Issoufou.

"For now, this attack hasn't happened, but it was being prepared at the same time as the attack against Niger," the Niger's president told FRANCE 24.

Issoufou was speaking in Agadez, a town in central Niger where Islamist militants attacked an army base last Thursday that killed 24 soldiers. The Islamists simultaneously struck a French-run uranium mine in Arlit in northern region. One of Areva's staff was dead in the attack.

The militant Islamist group Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and veteran al-Qaeda commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Signatories in Blood both claimed the attacks as revenge for Niger sending troops to help the French-led military operation against al Qaeda-linked insurgents in Mali, in which Niger's neighboring country Chad is also involved.

Issofou has long warned that the crisis in neighboring Mali was a domestic problem for his country, the French TV channel said in its report.

In an interview with FRANCE 24 over the weekend, Issofou said the suicide bombers behind the May 23 twin attacks at Arlit and Agadez were came from southern Libya.