The former al-Qaida chief who was believed to have been killed after taking hundreds of oil workers hostage in Algeria, is behind the latest suicide bombings in Niger, according to reports.
Statements attributed to Mokhtar Belmokhtar and his spokesperson have allegedly claimed responsibility for the blasts at a military barracks in Agadez and a French nuclear plant in Arlit, and threaten further attacks on France, Niger and other African countries involved in the military intervention in Mali.
"We will make them taste the taste of death," said a statement, reportedly signed by Khalid Abu al-Abbas – one of Belmokhtar's aliases – and obtained by news agency AFP. "Columns of jihadists and would-be martyrs stand ready and waiting for an order to crush their targets."
Thursday's co-ordinated suicide bombings, the first of their kind in Niger, shocked the country and fuelled concern about the cross-border terrorism in the west African Sahara and bordering Sahel region. In a separate statement quoted by Mauritanian news agency Alakhbar, a spokesman for Belmokhtar's organisation al-Mua'qi'oon Biddam (the Signed in Blood Brigade) claimed the attacks on Niger were a joint operation between it and jihadist group Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, principally active in northern Mali. The spokesman claimed Belmokhtar, who gained notoriety in January for conducting the In Amenas hostage siege in Algeria, had a supervisory role in dual bomb blasts that killed 20 soldiers and injured dozens of workers.
The statements are the latest suggestion that Belmokhtar is alive, after the Chadian army claimed in March it had killed him in a raid in the Ifoghas mountains in northern Mali, where it was fighting as part of a UN-backed French and African military intervention. Signed in Blood also described the Niger bombings as a revenge attack for the death of Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, an al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) commander who was killed in Mali by French and Chadian forces in March.
And in an apparent confirmation of the transnational support for jihadist groups in Africa, the group says the attackers were from Mali, Western Sahara and Sudan. The Nigerien government has said it cannot rule out the possibility that Nigeriens were also involved.
"The problem we have is that there is clearly complicity from people in Niger with these groups," said Moussa Akfar, a security expert in Niamey, the Nigerien capital. "There is evidence from the vehicles that the attackers were using and the way that they were able to plan and co-ordinate these attacks that they had inside help."
If Belmokhtar was involved in the attack it would be his first action since dozens of jihadist insurgents raided the internationally run gas plant at In Amenas in Algeria, killing 37 oil and gas workers.
Belmokhtar – who formed the Signed in Blood Brigade last year after splintering from AQIM – is notorious as a jihadist leader in Sahel, first attracting attention in Tessalit in northern Mali in 1996.
Confusion surrounds Thursday's attacks in Niger, with conflicting claims about the number of attackers captured and number of deaths and injuries in the bomb blasts. French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed on Friday that French special forces had intervened in the aftermath of the attack at Agadez, killing two of the attackers.
French special forces are believed to have been stationed in the area since 2010, when an attack by AQIM-linked militants resulted in seven workers, including five French nationals, being taken hostage at Arlit. Four French hostages remain in captivity, and are believed to be being held in northern Mali.
But the attack is the bloodiest since France intervened in Mali's conflict last year, prompting threats by jihadists that French interests around the world would become a further target for attacks. France has been on high alert since intervening in Mali, and in March, Areva – the world's second largest uranium producer – announced an extra €35m would be spent protecting its plant at Arlit.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks and called on the international community to strengthen security in the region.
"The secretary general reiterates the support of the UN to the efforts of the government of Niger and other countries in the Sahel region to combat the scourge of terrorism and transnational crime, in close collaboration with the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States and the Economic Community of Central African States," said a statement issued Ban's spokesperson.
"He stresses the need for the international community to continue to strengthen its co-operation to address these serious threats to the stability of the sub-region and beyond," it added.
The attacks draw further attention to the troubled Sahel, where the war in Mali and the events in Libya have compounded a decade of growing jihadist activity and drug trafficking.
"The problem is Niger is a large country, with instability on three fronts – we have rebels in Libya, the war in Mali and Boko Haram in Nigeria," said Akfar. "The borders are completely porous and these groups have made it clear they plan to carry out further attacks."