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Niger conflict 'grave threat'
14/04/2008 08:33 - (SA)
Niamey - A conflict between government forces and the Tuareg ethnic minority rebels presents a grave threat to the stability of the west African state of Niger, its national assembly has warned.
In a televised statement, the parliamentarians also predicted the situation in certain regions could jeopardise the holding of scheduled elections there next year.
The campaign by the rebel group known as the Movement of Niger People for Justice (MNJ) "constitutes a grave threat to the stability, peace and tranquillity of the country", the statement said.
Dismissed by the government here as "bandits" and "drug-dealers," the MNJ was a splinter faction of Niger's main Tuareg groups, which signed a 1995 agreement with the government to end a rebellion.
The group contended Niamey authorities still marginalised the Tuaregs - the traditional nomadic people of the southern Sahara - and had failed to fully implement the peace deal.
Agadez 'worst hit by troubles'
The 113 parliamentary deputies agreed that fighting between government forces and rebels and the presence of anti-tank landmines would make preparations for elections in the affected areas impossible.
A complete overhaul of the electoral list was scheduled between May 15 and 29 throughout this vast country to prepare for local, parliamentary and presidential elections in 2009.
At least three regions - Agadez in the north, the main area of MNJ activity, Diffa in the south-east, and northern parts of Zinder in the centre and south - were affected.
Agadez had been worst hit by the troubles, forcing the departure of international nongovernmental aid organisations, preventing delivery of basic goods and damaging the local economy, especially uranium mining in the north, the parliamentary statement said.
The statement implicitly noted the limits to the government's use of force, asking it to take all necessary measures "for a peaceful and lasting settlement of the conflict", while appealing to the MNJ to release some 10 hostages they were holding and enter into dialogue with the government.
The assembly also admonished both the government and rebels on human rights issues, calling on both sides to "strictly respect international humanitarian law".
Last week, Niger's army killed six rebels and lost one of its own men in two separate clashes in the vast state on the southern edge of the Sahara, the defence ministry said.
Niger is a drought-prone country with few resources apart from its uranium, which had been mined mainly by France for four decades and was subject to global price fluctuations.
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