Niger asks Algeria to help fight desert rebels

Reuters
NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's prime minister and military chiefs met neighbouring Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Sunday to discuss cross-border cooperation against Tuareg-led rebels in Niger's desert north, officials said.

The rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) has killed at least 36 soldiers and taken dozens hostage since launching an insurgency in February to demand greater autonomy for the vast region around the ancient Saharan caravan town of Agadez.

The government refuses to negotiate with the group, saying they are drug traffickers and common bandits, but has called on its neighbours to try to stop the flow of weapons, fuel and food thought to be reaching them from other Saharan armed groups. Some officials and civil society organisations in Niger have accused Libya of supporting the insurgents, who have also targeted mining interests in a region which contains some of the world's largest uranium deposits as well as reserves of oil.

"The delegation has not gone to ask Algeria to play any sort of mediation role, as was the case in the past, but to explain the situation and ask its authorities to bolster border security," one senior military official in Niger told Reuters. "Of course, if Algeria can convince the authors of these attacks that Niger will not negotiate and that they should put down their weapons, that would be very helpful," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Niger's Prime Minister Seyni Oumarou, Foreign Minister Aichatou Mindaoudou, armed forces chief General Moumouni Boureima, and President Mamadou Tandja's national security advisor General Abdou Kaza were among the delegation. The group was received on Sunday by Bouteflika, according to Algeria's official APS news agency.

Algeria has in the past acted as a mediator between Tuareg rebels in northern Niger and the government. The light-skinned nomads, famed for their blue turbans, staged a rebellion in the 1990s to demand more autonomy from a black African dominated government following a brutal clampdown by the security forces in which scores of civilians were killed.

Most Tuareg groups signed a peace deal in 1995 which promised more development for the north, strengthened local government and promised the incorporation of thousands of former fighters into the security forces.

The rebel movement, which says it numbers close to 2,000 fighters, argues that those peace accords have not been fully respected and that the north remains marginalised. The government says the vast majority of Tuareg demands from the 1990s have been met.