[Al Arabiya Latest] Soldiers have detained Niger's President Mamadou Tandja in a military coup led by a soldier named Major Adamou Harouna, Nigerien military sources said on Thursday. "The coup leader has succeeded," one source said. The president and the ministers are being detained not far from the presidential palace, the sources added.France earlier told its nationals in Niger to stay indoors after reports a coup was under way in the former French colony that was rocked by explosions and gunfire, a diplomat said. About 1,500 French nationals live in Niger, along with some 500 other Europeans, according to the diplomat.
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Niger is a major source of uranium for France's state-controlled nuclear energy company Areva, which is the impoverished nation's top private employer.
Soldiers opened fire earlier Thursday in the capital Niamey in what a senior French official said was a coup against President Tandja. Witnesses said the firing appeared to be centered on the presidency.
Tandja, 71, has spent more than a decade in power, having extended his term through a controversial referendum last August after dissolving parliament and the constitutional court. Niger has since been isolated on the international stage.