10 Tuareg rebels killed in Niger

2008-04-01 08:25

Niamey - Ten Tuareg rebels were killed and many others wounded in the last three weeks of March in strikes against mountain hideouts in Niger, a spokesperson for the country's armed forces said on Monday.

The rebels were killed in "operations to destroy the hideouts of armed bandits in the Air mountains", said spokesperson Goukoye Abdulkarim.

Five soldiers were also killed in the operations, three of them by a mine, he said, speaking on state media. One rebel was taken prisoner in the operations, conducted between March 09 and March 29, he said.

The Movement of Niger People for Justice (MNJ) was dismissed by Niamey as a group of "bandits" and "drug-dealers" and was a splinter faction of Niger's main Tuareg groups, which signed a 1995 agreement with the government to end a rebellion.

The Tuaregs were nomadic tribes who roamed the Sahara for centuries before nations of the region gained independence from European colonial powers. The MNJ wanted a share in Niger's uranium wealth and a role in the country's armed forces.

- AFP