{An attack by Islamist militants on a high-security prison in Niger holding about 100 jihadists has been foiled, government spokesman Marou Amadou says.}<\/p>\n
Fighting at Koutoukale, 50km (31 miles) north-west of the capital, Niamey, was reported at dawn.<\/p>\n
Mr Amadou told the BBC the attackers were from the Mali-based al-Qaeda splinter group Mujao.<\/p>\n
Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Niger in part to offer security help.
\nThe prison is holding jihadists from both the Nigeria-based Boko Haram group and those linked to al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n
But the government spokesman said that no-one had escaped during the attack.
\n“The attack has been contained. One attacker has been killed. They are now being hunted,” he added.<\/p>\n
The BBC’s Himadou Hamadou in Niamey says a local journalist told him that the attackers had come from the direction of the border with Mali.<\/p>\n
Mujao, or the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, is one of several Islamist militant groups based in Mali.<\/p>\n
Niger has in the past been targeted by Boko Haram and al-Qaeda-linked militants.
\nThe country’s army is part of the multi-national force fighting Boko Haram in Nigeria and its neighbours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{An attack by Islamist militants on a high-security prison in Niger holding about 100 jihadists has been foiled, government spokesman Marou Amadou says.} Fighting at Koutoukale, 50km (31 miles) north-west of the capital, Niamey, was reported at dawn. Mr Amadou told the BBC the attackers were from the Mali-based al-Qaeda splinter group Mujao. Last week, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-29520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29520"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=29520"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=29520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}