Rebels free 14 Niger soldiers

2007-09-17 07:26

Tripoli - Tuareg rebels of the Movement of Niger People for Justice (MNJ) have announced the release of 14 captured Niger soldiers after an intervention by Libya.

An MNJ source said: "We announce the liberation of 14 Niger soldiers in reply to the appeal of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi."

On September 07, the movement said it had captured six soldiers during an attack on a military base at Agharous in the north of Niger.

The rebels had already been holding 33 troops since June, part of a group of 72 soldiers seized in a raid that cost the lives of 13 soldiers in the region.

Thirty-nine of the 72 had been released, some after an appeal by the International Committee of the Red Cross and others after an intervention by Libya.

At the end of August, Niger President Mamadou Tandja requested Tripoli's backing to ensure his country's security.

Since February, the north of Niger, near to Algeria, Libya and Chad, had been the scene of deadly clashes between the government army and Tuareg rebels.

The MNJ, calling for Tuaregs - a nomadic Berber people - to be included in the army, paramilitary corps and the local mining sector, had claimed numerous attacks on military targets in the Agadez region, where the country's uranium mines were situated.

- AFP