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Niger on landmine alert
11/01/2008 20:09 - (SA)
Boureima Hama
Niamey - The explosion of anti-tank mines in central and south Niger towns has alarmed the population, as rumours spread that the weapons are being widely laid.
This comes after a journalist died after striking a mine in the capital.
"I get the shivers when I'm driving, I'm always hitting the brakes," said Hamidou Gazibo, a resident of Niamey's Koubia district where the radio journalist was blown up on Tuesday.
Taxi drivers told AFP they refuse to take deserted streets or dust tracks anymore for fear of the mines. One private radio station spoke of "citizens walking around on tip-toe, afraid of being blown apart".
Landmines have long been a threat in the highlands and desert in the north of the country, where the army is fighting Tuareg rebels of the Movement of Nigeriens for Justice (MNJ).
Tuesday's blast was the first of its kind in Niamey, in the southwest, and followed the killing of two people and wounding of four others in December by anti-tank mines in Maradi, the economic capital, and at Tahoua in the northwest.
The army and the rebels among the Tuaregs blame each other for laying the mines, blowing up vehicles carrying goods and in November wrecking a bus on the main road between Agadez town and the mining town of Arlit.
In November, the authorities warned that the rebels were planning "acts of sabotage and terrorism" in urban areas.
The MNJ counter-charged on its website that "the regime has lost any sense of direction and is laying mines everywhere in order to accuse the fighters for justice".
Government spokesperson and Communications Minister Mohamed Ben Omar said: "If it isn't the MNJ bandits, which other Nigeriens would carry out these criminal acts against their compatriots?"
The government of President Mamadou Tandja refuses to negotiate with the MNJ while it is still fighting and on Wednesday urged citizens to form "people's brigades" to look out for and denounce "suspect activity and individuals".
"These mines are difficult to detect," an army sapper said on television, but hidden weapons have been found and made safe in time at Dosso, south of Niamey and near Zinder.
The MNJ wants Tuaregs - traditionally a nomadic Berber people - to be included in the army and paramilitary corps and to benefit from the mining sector. It has claimed numerous attacks on military targets in the Agadez region where the country's uranium mines are situated.
The government, however, dismisses them as bandits and accuses them of involvement in trans-Sahara drug trafficking.
Several aid agencies have urged Tandja's government to soften its stance, since the clashes in the north have led to the closure of medical dispensaries and schools, while hampering relief work and causing food shortages in communities because of the threat mines pose to transportation.
- AFP
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