Niger strengthens its nuclear cooperation with Russia and Ethiopia regains control of Mekele

Russia and Niger are racing against time to establish nuclear projects in one of the poorest countries in the world, but it alone possesses more than 350,000 tons of uranium, making it the seventh country in the world in terms of reserves of one of the most dangerous and important minerals on earth.

Niger is trying to make uranium mines a tool for geopolitical repositioning, after France has been extracting the metal for five decades and exporting it abroad in exchange for taxes and sums received by Niamey. But since the 2023 coup, Niamey decided to expel France and turn to Russia, which promised to build a complete Nigerian nuclear system, from mining to reactors.

This acceleration was evident last Friday, when Nigerien President General Abderrahmane Tiani received a Russian delegation led by Energy Minister Sergei Tsevilev, at the conclusion of the first session of the joint governmental committee between the two countries, which included more than 100 participants. During his meeting with the Russian delegation, Tiani urged “accelerating the implementation of the specific projects” before the Russia-Africa summit, expected in the Russian capital, Moscow, on October 28 and 29, as Niger has been experiencing a major energy and electricity crisis for years.

The Joint Committee for Cooperation between Russia and Niger, which was held on Friday in Niamey, resulted in the signing of two memorandums of understanding. The first is between the Nigerian government and Rosatom about the peaceful uses of corn, and the second is with a Russian company to establish a solar energy station.

The committee discussed 4 areas, including energy, oil and mines, health, agriculture and the environment, education, vocational training and higher education, transport and communications, while the Russian side offered to provide a full series of services in the field of energy, in addition to assistance in developing a master plan for the use of water resources, renewable energy and civilian nuclear energy.

The Russian Minister expressed his country's readiness to enhance cooperation in geology, exploration of natural resources, and the establishment of local manufacturing industries instead of just extracting raw materials, in reference to uranium and gold. He also expressed his country's endeavor to increase trade exchange between Russia and Niger in agricultural products such as grains, oils and fertilizers.

The roots of this rapprochement go back to the coup of July 2023, when in June 2025 Niamey nationalized the “Sumer” company, the French arm of “Orano” in the Arlit mine, in which it owned a stake of more than 63 percent. Urano, which is 90 percent owned by the French state, responded by filing four international arbitration lawsuits, and on September 23, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes obliged Niamey not to sell or transfer its frozen stock of uranium, estimated at about a thousand tons worth 300 million euros, to any third party, in an explicit French attempt to prevent its arrival in Moscow.

On July 28, 2025, Rosatom signed the first nuclear memorandum of understanding with Niamey, and Tsiviliev described it at the time by saying: “Our mission is not merely to participate in uranium extraction, but rather to create an integrated system for developing peaceful corn in Niger.” The Nigerian state company, Temirsoy, signed a parallel memorandum with Uranium One, a subsidiary of Rosatom, to develop new mining projects, while its president, Pavel Larionov, described the agreement as “an important step in building long-term Russian-Nigerian cooperation.”

The ambition reached its peak in September 2025, when the then Nigerian Minister of Mines, Ousmane Abarchi, announced in Moscow that his country was ready to build two reactors with a capacity of 2,000 megawatts “under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.” Rosatom Director General Alexei Likhachev responded by describing the proposal as “very interesting.”

At a meeting last Friday, the current Nigerian Minister of Energy, Colonel Seni Alzouma, affirmed that “civilian nuclear represents a great strategic horizon for Niger,” stressing that the partnership “must contribute to the transfer of technology, training youth, and developing the local industry.”

However, Western analysts warn of a wide gap between what is being talked about in the media and what is being implemented on the ground regarding these projects. An African newspaper called “Modern Ghana” wrote that “Niger, which today lacks simple lighting in homes, will not be illuminated by Rosatom reactors in the near future,” and pointed out that the huge uranium shipment is still stuck without anyone to buy it.

From Paris, economic researcher Hloise Laurent considered that “French nuclear sovereignty is decided in the conversion plants inside France, not in the mines of Niger,” in an attempt to allay fears of losing a source of supply that provided about 40 percent of Paris’s needs. Observers also point out that civilian nuclear reactor projects in Niger, and even the rest of the Sahel countries allied with Moscow, face major challenges that make it close to fantasy, as it is difficult to build this technology in an unsafe area, and vast areas of it are under the control of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, and arms, drug, and human smuggling networks are widespread.

Reports of Ethiopian forces tightening their control over the capital of the Tigray region, on Sunday, coincided with the summit of the leaders of Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and the Sudanese army in Egypt, amid Ethiopian accusations against Cairo, Asmara and the Sudanese army of supporting the rebels, and an American warning of the repercussions of Ethiopian-Eritrean tension on the region.

The United States called for restraint and dialogue in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia accuses neighboring countries of supporting the rebellion in the Tigray region (north of the country). The US State Department said, in a statement, “The growing border tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea may affect the entire region, and the Horn of Africa cannot tolerate another military conflict and humanitarian crisis.” She added: “We strongly urge Ethiopia and Eritrea to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of their neighbors, exercise maximum restraint, and return to dialogue.”

Reports reported, on Sunday, that Ethiopian forces took full control of the city of Mekelle, the capital of Tigray region, while a drone attacked the Ethiopian capital. According to observers, explosions caused by drones affected two military buildings in Addis Ababa, in the first targeting of its kind in a long time.

Since September 23, violent clashes have been taking place in northern Ethiopia following attacks launched by the Tigray People's Liberation Front on the Afar and Amhara regions, which raised fears of a renewal of the devastating civil war that the north of the country witnessed between 2020 and 2022, and claimed the lives of about 600,000 people.

On Saturday, federal forces entered the city of Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region, according to Agence France-Presse, citing a humanitarian source, after the forces of the rebel regional authorities had largely evacuated it.

In April, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which ruled Ethiopia for about three decades until 2018, overthrew the administration appointed by the federal government in Tigray.

Neither the Ethiopian National Defense Forces nor the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed commented on the developments immediately. In a video clip published on Thursday evening, the head of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, Debretsion Gebremichael, appeared to acknowledge that his forces had suffered setbacks and called for a shift towards guerrilla warfare. He said: “Our strategy is to hit the enemy where we want,” recalling that the “Tigray People’s Liberation Front” had expelled government forces from the region “in the past... within 8 months.” He added: “We will defeat them again, it is only a matter of time.”

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed begins, on Monday, an anticipated new term, amid the repercussions of battles against the Tigray Liberation Front, which began in his first term, with the outbreak of a war that lasted between 2020 and 2022.

Ethiopian parliamentarian, Mohamed Nour Ahmed, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the council will approve Abiy Ahmed as prime minister of Ethiopia for a third term on Monday, after his “Prosperity” party won a majority in the elections held last June.

He pointed out that according to the regulations and rules, “the party that won the elections is the one that presents the prime minister, and Abiy Ahmed will be its expected candidate who will lead the country’s upcoming reform, development and stability plans.”

On Sunday, 3 sources told Reuters that Ethiopian government forces and allied militias regained control of the capital of the Tigray region, in a major setback for the opposition coalition ruling the northern region.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front, which leads the opposition coalition, said in a statement posted on Facebook that it had withdrawn from the capital, and that the regional government would be transferred "temporarily from Mekele, and will work from elsewhere."

This decline, according to Ethiopian analyst Abdel Shakur Abdel Samad, in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, confirms that the obstacle to Tigray is declining, stressing that this is to the credit of Abiy Ahmed’s government, which will continue to maintain the stability of the country.

Abiy Ahmed is also awaiting a new, unprecedented shift in the history of Ethiopia, as Parliament is heading to discuss the country’s transition from a parliamentary system to a presidential system, with the start of its sessions this October, amid parliamentary confirmation to Asharq Al-Awsat that the draft of this potential project will be discussed and issued as a “top priority” for the country in the coming period.