nar-maven-plugin >= 3.3.0 fails with "msvc.version not specified" - c

Question

I want to build a helloworld C program on a Windows machine with Maven and Cygwin's gcc. The build is succesful with nar-maven-plugin version 3.2.3, but if use a higher version like 3.4.0 the build always fails with
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal com.github.maven-nar:nar-maven-plugin:3.4.0:nar-validate (default-nar-validate) on project helloworld: msvc.version not specified and no VSCOMNTOOLS environment
Why is that? I do not want to use the Microsoft compiler.
My project structure:
src/main/c/helloworld.c
pom.xml
My pom.xml:
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.foo.bar</groupId>
<artifactId>helloworld</artifactId>
<packaging>nar</packaging>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>com.github.maven-nar</groupId>
<artifactId>nar-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.4.0</version>
<extensions>true</extensions>
<configuration>
<c>
<name>gcc</name>
<includes>
<include>**/*.c</include>
</includes>
</c>
<linker>
<name>gcc</name>
</linker>
<libraries>
<library>
<type>executable</type>
<run>false</run>
</library>
</libraries>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
My build output:
C:\CC4\c_test>which gcc
C:\cygwin64\bin\gcc.EXE
C:\CC4\c_test>gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 5.3.0
Copyright (C) 2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
C:\CC4\c_test>mvn clean install
### C:\Users\jokroebe\mavenrc_pre.bat
### Set JAVA_HOME for maven to C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_80
### Set MAVEN_OPTS to -Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building helloworld 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-clean-plugin:2.5:clean (default-clean) # helloworld ---
[INFO] Deleting C:\CC4\c_test\target
[INFO]
[INFO] --- nar-maven-plugin:3.4.0:nar-validate (default-nar-validate) # helloworld ---
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 5.436 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2016-03-31T20:45:42+02:00
[INFO] Final Memory: 9M/154M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal com.github.maven-nar:nar-maven-plugin:3.4.0:nar-validate (default-nar-validate) on project helloworld: msvc.version not specified and no VS<Version>COMNTOOLS environment
variable can be found -> [Help 1]
[ERROR]
[ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR]
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MojoExecutionException