400 ex-Niger rebels sent home

2009-11-12 17:25

Niamey - Libya has repatriated by air 386 recently amnestied Niger Tuareg rebels who have been living in the north African country, an official source in Niger's northern city of Agadez said.

Niger President Mamadou Tandja granted amnesty last month to Tuareg rebels who recently gave up their weapons.

These former rebels of the principal Touareg militant group, the Movement of Nigeriens for Justice (MNJ), who arrived on Wednesday in Agadez, had dropped their arms early last month in Libya following the mediation of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In total, some 800 ex-fighters living in Libya are affected in the repatriation. The remaining militants are expected to return home by road, the official said.

The Tuaregs are indigenous, nomadic Berber tribes who roamed the Sahara for centuries before nations of the region gained independence from European colonial powers.

They have been operating since 2007 in the desert but uranium-rich region of Agadez.

Three rebellion movements, including the MNJ, want better integration of Tuaregs in the army and benefits from the mining sector in the conflict zone. One faction, the Front of Forces for Recovery (FFR), led by Rhissa Ag Boula, which initially rejected the peace process midwifed by Gaddafi, later announced it would accept it.

Ag Boula, a former Niger tourism minister, who has been living abroad for years, had been condemned to death for alleged assassination of a political figure in 2004.

- AFP