Hommam Al Nassim 
The Nigerien army announced the formation of a special force to protect strategic sites from terrorist attacks, in a move aimed at securing uranium mines and oil wells that have been suffering from violence since 2015.
Colonel Monkela Sofiani, head of strategic studies at the Nigerian Ministry of Defense, stated that the goal of the new force is to “ensure better protection of strategic sites and installations.” He added that this measure comes in response to “urgent security needs.”
Targeted sites include uranium mines in the north, oil wells in the northeast, in addition to a pipeline approximately 2,000 kilometers long extending from landlocked oil fields to the port of Simi in Benin on the Atlantic coast.
Sofiani confirmed that the main roads for importing and exporting goods, such as the road linking Lomé (the capital of Togo) with Niamey (the capital of Niger) via Ouagadougou (the capital of Burkina Faso), will also be included in the list of protected sites.
The official authorities announced the start of the recruitment campaign at the beginning of next July, with the aim of recruiting 10,000 soldiers to support the new force. Niger plans to reach 100,000 soldiers by 2030.
Four years ago, Niger announced plans to double the size of its army to 50,000 soldiers by 2025 and raise the retirement age for some soldiers from 47 years to 52 years, in addition to re-recruiting thousands of recently retired soldiers.
Niger is facing violence by armed organizations such as “Boko Haram” and “ISIS in West Africa (ISWAP)” in the southeastern regions of the country near Nigeria.
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