Last time it was a military base attack now a prison in central Niamey. And we all know that most Boko Haram are from Niger Republic.

Gunmen yesterday invaded the central prison in Niger Republic, raising fears that such insurgency could spread to other countries in the West Africa and Sahel regions.

The gunmen opened fire on the guards and killed at least two people, according to a government spokesman and a witness who was close to the prison when the incident occurred.

Although it could not be immediately established whether the assailants came from inside or outside the jail, serving and retired military officers who spoke on the development yesterday said such insurgency might be experienced or escalate in the West Africa sub-region.

Major Yahaya Shinko (rtd) told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY yesterday that the prison attack might be connected with the role the government of Niger played in the Mali military intervention, which led to the sacking of the Islamist regime in that country.

He said insurgence groups were interconnected, which makes their targets and activities take the same pattern.

Shinko said, “Remember that Niger provided the United States its airspace for a drone operation in northern Mali. More of such attacks may likely take place in countries such as Chad Republic, which has played a key role in the dismantling of the Islamists in Mali.”

A former lecturer at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and governorship candidate in Adamawa State, Dr Umar Ardo, believed that the current military operations in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states might be responsible for the Niger prison attack.

“The insurgents are inter-linked across Africa. The military operation in the north-east is a spill-over in Niger because of its proximity to Nigeria,” Ardo said.

Ardo agreed that more of such attacks are likely to occur in the Sahel and West African countries: “History has shown that the northern parts of Senegal, Burkina Faso, Togo and Cameroun are largely Muslim communities while the southern parts are largely Christians except southern Nigeria with a large Muslim community.

“This insurgency is due to bad governance and injustice. From Senegal to Bargani, a border town between Nigeria and Chad, is termed belt of conflict as history has indicated that, almost a century ago, founder of Mali Empire Sundiata Keita killed many scholars whom he perceived as against his leadership style; so the possibility of the escalation of the current attack may linger,” he said.

In the Niger attack, two security guards were killed and a third was gravely wounded, said Niger government spokesman Marou Amadou. He said the attackers had been captured and the incident was being investigated.

“There are two versions of what happened and right now we think it’s more likely that they came from inside the jail,” Amadou said by telephone. “These are people who are wanted for terrorism. We do not know how they were able to arm themselves inside the prison, and how they were able to get out to attack the guards. We have two dead guards already and one seriously wounded.”

Souleymane Magagi, whose house sits about 350 metres from the gates of the prison, said neighbours came running to tell him about the attack at 3:30pm When he approached the prison, he saw the bus normally used to carry prison workers parked with its doors open, near the entrance to the jail. What looked like two bodies were being loaded into the bus, though he said he was afraid of coming any closer than around 200 metres and could not be sure if the bodies were of the dead guards, or if they were people wounded in the incident.

Magagi, who is the secretary-general of the country’s union for mine and petroleum workers, said he believed the attackers came from outside the country.

“There is a specific hour at mealtime when relatives of the prisoners are allowed inside the prison with baskets of food for their relatives. They took advantage and entered at this moment,” he said, adding that he had spoken to relatives that were already in the prison complex waiting to bring food to their family members when the shooting erupted. He believed the attackers were trying to free fighters from the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram based in Nigeria, Niger’s larger neighbour to the south.

“Armed men came and attacked the central prison,” said Magagi. “They shot at the guards and were able to penetrate the prison, probably to liberate their colleagues. They are likely elements of MUJAO and Boko Haram.”

However, the government spokesman said that it is too early to say which group carried out the attack, describing them simply as “people with links to terrorism”.