Gunfire was heard near Niger’s presidency early Wednesday, two days  ahead of the swearing-in of president-elect Mohamed Bazoum. The “attempted coup” was repelled by presidential guards, said FRANCE 24’s special correspondent Cyril Payen reporting from the capital, Niamey.

“Heavy gunfire was heard for half-an-hour in the presidential palace area. The presidential guard repelled the attack and the situation seems to be back under control,” said Payen.

“With two days to go before the inauguration of the new president, we know that the main challenge facing him is security, but we were thinking more of terrorist attacks, not this kind of action,” added Payen.

There have been growing attacks by Islamist militants, and political tensions in the country following Bazoum’s victory in a February presidential election runoff. Former president Mahamane Ousmane, who lost in the runoff, has rejected the results and said there was fraud.

‘It lasted 15 minutes’

Witnesses in Niamey said the heavy gunfire early Wednesday lasted between 15 to 20 minutes.

“It was around 3am, we heard shots from heavy and light weapons and it lasted 15 minutes before stopping, followed by shots from light weapons,” one resident of Niamey’s Plateau district, which includes the president’s official residence and offices, told AFP.

“The gunfire lasted about 20 minutes,” another resident said.

A third resident spoke of “intense shooting, with heavy and light weapons”.

Online newspaper actuniger.com reported that calm had returned by around 4 am.

In short video clips posted on social networks, only several seconds in length, sporadic bursts of gunfire could be heard in the pitch dark.

No official source was immediately available to comment.

Tensions high ahead of inauguration

Tensions were high in the lead-up to Friday’s presidential inauguration.

Bazoum, the former interior minister and right-hand man of outgoing president Mahamadou Issoufou, Bazoum’s victory in the second round of the election on February 2 was confirmed by the constitutional court this month.

His main rival, Ousmane, had called for “peaceful marches” across the country, but a planned opposition protest Wednesday in Niamey was banned a day earlier by authorities.

Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, has suffered numerous coups in its history, most recently a February 2010 putsch which toppled then president Mamadou Tandja.

The Sahel country has also recently been struck by repeated jihadist attacks as Islamist movements have spilled over from neighbouring Mali and Nigeria.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)