Niger Movement for Justice
Encyclopedia
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
based militant
Militant
The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...
group. But the MNJ also includes other nomadic ethnicities, within this area, such as the Toubou
Toubou
The Tubu are an ethnic group that live mainly in northern Chad, but also in Libya, Niger and Sudan....
and the Fulani
Fula people
Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...
have also joined the group, which has been battling the Niger government since 2007 .
The MNJ wants a greater share of the revenues from northern Niger's uranium wealth to be invested in the region. Niger is one of the top five uranium producers in the world. It is also one of the bottom five poorest countries on earth. They also want a restriction of the area that will be affected by the expansion of the uranium mines, to protect the space they need to raise their animals.
The Niger government has dismissed the MNJ as "bandits" and "drug-smugglers", and turned the northern half of the country into a closed military zone under curfew and military law suspending certain freedoms. Journalists are strictly prohibited from covering the rebellion.
Events
MNJ has claimed a series of attacks on the Nigerien Military and foreign economic interests since February 2007. The organization has taken responsibility for attacks which have killed 45 and seized over tens of Nigerien soldiers. [As of 2008] the MNJ has claimed to have some 3,500 fighters, many of them defectorDefection
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
s from the Nigerien military.
In June 2007 the MNJ attacked northern Niger's main airport at Agadez, as well as over-running an army post in the Air Mountains taking over 70 Nigerien soldiers as POWs.
In July 2007, the MNJ kidnapped a Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
nuclear engineer working for China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corps, holding him for about 10 days, to ask the company pulling their operations out of Teguidan Tessoumt, where the company, cooperating with the Niger government, had been prospecting for uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
some time.
On 22 June 2008 the MNJ kidnapped four employees of the French state nuclear corporation Areva, which has been exploiting northern Niger's uranium for over forty years. The French nationals were released to the Red Cross three days later.
Leaders
The MNJ is led by Aghaly ag Alambo, a former member of the Front de libération de l’Aïr et de l’Azawagh (FLAA), and Mohamed Acharif, a former capitan in the Nigerien Armed Forces who defected to the rebels in May 2007.Aghaly Alambo, from Iferouane
Iferouane
Iferouane , also spelled Iferouan, is an oasis town in northern Niger, in Agadez Department. It is located northeast of Arlit in the northern Aïr,in the Ighazar valleynear the Tamgak Range....
in northern Niger, was apparently inspired by the Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
based Tuareg group May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change
May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change
The May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change is a Malian Tuareg rebel group, formed in 2006 by ex-combatants from the 1990s Tuareg insurgency in Mali. In 2007, splinters of the organisation returned to combat in northern Mali, launching the Malian element of the 2007 Tuareg insurgency...
(Mai 23, 2006 Alliance démocratique pour le changement - ADC), ex-combattants who led a short campaign in the north of Mali from May to July 2006, when they signed a peace deal with the Bamako
Bamako
Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...
government. In late March 2008, the ADC re-started its armed uprising against the Mali government.
See also
- Tuareg Rebellion (2007–present)Tuareg Rebellion (2007–present)The Tuareg Rebellion of 2007-2009 was an insurgency that began in February 2007 amongst elements of the Tuareg people living in the Sahara desert regions of northern Mali and Niger. It is only the most recent of a series of insurgencies by formerly nomadic Tuareg populations, which had last...
- AzaouadAzaouadAzaouad, Azawad, or Azawagh is the collective non-officially recognized name for the main Tamashek-speaking parts of northern Mali, northern Niger, and part of southern Algeria. Azawad is mainly made up of Sahelian and Saharan vast flat lands inhabited by Tuareg nomads...
- Revolutionary Armed Forces of the Sahara(FARS)Revolutionary Armed Forces of the SaharaRevolutionary Armed Forces of the Sahara is a Toubou militant group in Niger, presumably of separatist intentions, who kidnapped two Italian tourists in August 2006. Boubakar Mohamed Sogoma, ethnically Toubou, is a commander of FARS in 2008.- External links :...
External links
- IRIN - humanitarian news and analysis with frequent reports on the situation in northern Niger
- (French) The Niger Movement for Justice (Mouvement des Nigériens pour la justice, MNJ) Press site.: three to ten communiqués a week have been posted since April 2007
- Reputed press site of the ALLIANCE TOUAREGUE NIGER-MALI: created 31 August 2007
- Reuters/alertnet.org: Articles on Niger-Mali Tuareg unrest