FASANO, ITALY - JUNE 14: President of Algeria Abdelmadjid Tebboune arrives at Borgo Egnazia on day two of the 50th G7 summit, on June 14, 2024 in Fasano, Italy. The G7 summit in Puglia, hosted by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the seventh held in Italy, gathers leaders from the seven member states, the EU Council, and the EU Commission. Discussions will focus on topics including Africa, climate change, development, the Middle East, Ukraine, migration, Indo-Pacific economic security, and artificial intelligence. (Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)
President of Algeria Abdelmadjid Tebboune called the mutiny in Niger a 'provocation' [File: Antonio Masiello/Getty Images]
Published On 3 Oct 2026

Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has said that his country sent fighter jets to Niger in late August to help thwart a “coup attempt” that shook the capital, Niamey.

The confirmation came in excerpts from Tebboune’s interview with local media outlets that was broadcast on Saturday ahead of its full release.

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Tebboune said that the warplanes were sent because some parties had “gone too far”.

He added that Niger’s Prime Minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, had been visiting Algeria and returned home at night just before the mutiny.

“For obvious reasons, this is a provocation against us … and I too will send planes and we’ll meet head-on,” Tebboune said.

He did not specify who he meant when he said some had gone too far, or whether he was referring to internal or external actors.

Sustained gunfire and explosions were heard in Niamey overnight on August 28 into August 29.

A military base at Diori Hamani International Airport was first targeted by renegade soldiers, followed by attacks on the state broadcaster and presidential palace.

A military armoured vehicle takes position on the street following a mutineers' attack on the airport and the presidency in Niamey, Niger, on August 30, 2026 [Reuters]
A military armoured vehicle on the street in Niamey following the attack by mutineers on the airport and presidency on August 30, 2026 [File: Reuters]

Niger’s Minister of Defence, General Salifou Modi, announced at the time that a group of military personnel attempted to detain a number of their colleagues at Air Base 101, and opened fire on strategic locations in the capital.

Security forces had intervened and managed to contain the situation, gradually regaining control over the targeted locations, he added.

On August 30 , the Algerian Ministry of Defence said it had sent four fighter jets to Niger following unrest. It said two patrols of four Sukhoi Su-30 aircraft had landed at Niamey airport, accompanied by an air-to-air refuelling plane.

The warplanes were deployed at the request of Nigerien authorities on “a mission to support the Nigerien army in confronting an attempt to destabilise the brotherly state of Niger,”  the ministry added then.

Niger’s military government last month accused France of orchestrating the failed mutiny, but France denied any involvement in the events in its former colony.

Algeria and Niger share close security and military ties, as well as a long land border, with Algeria viewing the stability of the Sahel region as an essential component of its national security.

Niger’s Prime Minister Zeine met President Tebboune when he visited Algeria on August 26–27 as the head of a high-level ministerial delegation aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two countries.