China ends uranium prospecting in Niger after rebel threats

China ends uranium prospecting in Niger after rebel threats

11th July 2007

Following on from our April report of an attack by the indigenous Niger Movement for Justice (NMJ) on a camp owned by the French nuclear energy group, Areva, the situation seems to be escalating. While the Niger government denounces the Tuareg-led rebels, and there is a national press ban on reporting the issue, the NMJ has launched an appeal to all foreigners who are working in mineral exploration to leave the "conflict zone". The NMJ subsequently took a Chinese uranium executive hostage. Interestingly, given Chinese activities in Africa, the NMJ say the specific hostage-taking was because Chinese firms operating in Niger are helping the government acquire weapons that it is then turning on the Tuaregs. According to Mineweb, they also accused "mostly Chinese companies of not employing local people and investing in basic facilities". Although the employee has been released, the action was enough for China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corporation (CNEC) to withdraw from the country. There appears to be little news from other companies interested in the region, such as the Canadian Northwest Mineral Ventures. accuse mostly Chinese companies of not employing local people and investing in basic facilities.

The call of the NMJ is for local people to have greater control over mineral resources. Given the press ban it is difficult to hear their side of the story, and unfortunately for a mostly English language site like ours the majority of information is in French. Those who are interested in further can keep up-to-date at http://m-n-j.blogspot.com and www.criirad.org (see "Dossiers d'actualite").