Ban closely following developments in Niger after reported coup

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is closely following developments in Niger, where renegade soldiers reportedly stormed the presidential palace earlier today and the whereabouts of the West African nation’s leader remains unclear.

Ban closely following developments in Niger amid reported coup

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is closely following developments in Niger, where renegade soldiers reportedly stormed the presidential palace earlier today and the whereabouts of the West African nation’s leader remains unclear.

Haiti: UN launches largest-ever appeal for natural disaster

The United Nations and its aid partners today issued a call for nearly $1.5 billion to assist 3 million Haitians - one third of the Caribbean nation’s population - following last month’s colossal earthquake, making it the largest-ever humanitarian appeal launched in the wake of a natural disaster.

UNICEF study finds millions of Egyptian children still live in poverty

Millions of Egyptian children continue to live in poverty, despite recent gains made for young people, particularly on the legislative front, a study commissioned by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has found.

Today on New Scientist: 18 February 2010

All today’s stories on newscientist.com at a glance, including: what happens at absolute zero, the source of cosmic blasts, and the immense economic value of typos

African-American History & The Struggle For Socialism: Detroit ForumSaturday, Feb. 20, 5:00-8:00pm

African-American History Month Program
Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010, 5:00-8:00pm
5920 Second Avenue at Antoinette (WSU area)
Sponsor: Workers World Party and the Harriet Tubman School
Contact: 313.671.3715 or 887.4344
E-mail: panw@africamail.com
Dinner: African-American Cuisine Served

African American History & The Struggle for Socialism

Even though it is hidden in the official accounts of U.S. history,
African-Americans have played a pivotal role in the struggles against
national oppression, capitalism and imperialism. During slavery Africans revolted and fled from bondage. Many fought in the civil war and afterwards for freedom and self-determination.

African-American workers and youth have been on the ground level in the formation of trade unions and student organizations. Thousands joined left movements between World War I and the Great Depression. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Black Panther Party and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers advanced socialism as a political goal.

Today African-Americans and women are on the frontlines of the struggle against the economic crisis for jobs, housing, health care and quality education. Join us on Feb. 20 for this groundbreaking discussion.

Speakers Include:

Debbie Johnson, Meeting Chair: Member of Workers World Detroit Branch

Sandra Hines, Moratorium NOW! Coalition Organizer: Presents “A Tribute to Langston Hughes”

Andrea Egypt, MECAWI/Moratorium NOW! Coalition Member:
“Report on the Legacy of Claudia Jones and the Role of African-American Women in the Fight for Socialism”

Kevin Carey, People’s Task Force: Report on “The Cold War, COINTELPRO & The Black Left”

Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire: Report on “Socialism and the Right of Oppressed Nations to Self-Determination”

Top UN envoy intensifies talks in Côte d’Ivoire to ensure elections remain on course

The top United Nations envoy in Côte d’Ivoire is holding intensive talks with all sides in the divided West African country to ensure that last week’s dissolution of the Government and the independent electoral authority does not affect repeatedly delayed elections, currently slated to be held next month.

Three Afghan Taliban leaders captured - a shift in the ISI?

The recent arrests of three senior Afghan Taliban leaders in Pakistan may just signal an important shift in the Pakistani intelligence service’s willingness to engage the Taliban. The three include the Afghan Taliban military operations chief, second only to Mullah Omar himself, and two provincial Taliban leaders.

These are significant blows to the Taliban and may indicate a new willingness on the part of the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate to actually take on the Taliban. It is important to note that the Taliban was created largely through the efforts of the ISI recruiting Islamist Afghan refugees in Pakistan in the late 1990’s. Almost all of the Taliban are Pushtuns, which not coincidentally is the the major ethnic group that makes up the ISI. The arrests in Pakistan also highlight the fact that the Taliban’s senior leadership must use Pakistan as a safe haven - evidently it is too dangerous to remain in Afghanistan. There are reports that other Taliban leaders departed Afghanistan for Pakistan when an impending offensive in Helmand province (the current Operation Moshtarak) was announced. I guess it was that or use women and children as humand shields….

Another factor that comes into play here, and I am willing to bet that this factor was engineered by American intelligence officers working with the Pakistanis. The arrests were initially kept secret - this makes sense. When you capture a senior leader, you want to exploit whatever he knows before his organization realizes that their operations have been compromised. As soon as the Taliban realized that ‘Abd al-Ghani Baradar was in Pakistani and American custody, they would have taken immediate steps to cancel any pending or imminent operations, change communications methods and move out of locations of which he was aware. Holding him incognito as long as possible preserved the value and extended the longevity of any information extracted during interrogation.

After a few weeks, the arrest was widely publicized in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the rest of the world. In part, this has an psychological effect on the entire Taliban - that’s good. I suspect the CIA officers working with the ISI wanted this made public also to prevent an “escape” of the detainees. The ISI has many members that are sympathetic to both the Taliban and al-Qa’idah, most of them are of the same ethnic group, and maybe even of the same tribal groupings. I am reminded of the “imminent surrenders” of both Mullah Omar and ‘Usamah bin Ladin in 2001 - then all of sudden, they “escape.” What happens/happened? Money changes hands, tribal loyalties come into play, etc - and they escape.

Pakistan has become a key battlefield in the war against al-Qa’idah and the Taliban. CIA drone-launched missiles have taken a real toll on the al-Qa’idah leadership over the last two years - these attacks have been stepped up under President Barack Obama. These three arrests are significant in that they target the Afghan Taliban leadership, not that of al-Qa’idah. This will no doubt have an effect on the war in Afghanistan by taking senior Taliban leaders out of the picture.

Hopefully, these arrests indicate that the Pakistanis now realize that the Taliban are a threat to them as well as to Afghanistan - and that can only help in our efforts to kill any al-Qa’idah left in Pakistan. That’s where we need to focus - al-Qa’idah is not in Afghanistan. They’ve moved - so kill the ones left in Pakistan, then move on to Yemen….

UN urges reviews to surmount obstacles to HIV/AIDS treatment

With progress uneven towards meeting this year’s goal of universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care, the United Nations today called on countries and regional bodies to convene review meetings to identify obstacles and plan better strategies.

Niger News Bulletin: President Mamadou Tandja Reportedly Held inMilitary Coup Attempt

Niger leader ‘held by soldiers’

Niger President Mamadou Tandja and his cabinet are being held by
soldiers after gun battles in the capital, a government source has
told the BBC.

Gunfire broke out around the presidential palace at about 1300 (1200
GMT) and continued for 30 minutes, says the BBC’s Idy Baraou in
Niamey.

Our correspondent says tanks are on the streets and witnesses report seeing injured people being taken to hospital.

An unnamed senior French official told AFP a coup attempt was under way.

“All I can say is that it would appear that Tandja is not in a good
position,” he told the news agency on condition of anonymity.

Long-term tensions

Soldiers captured Mr Tandja while he was chairing his weekly cabinet meeting, the government source said.

The exchange of gunfire has been between soldiers but it is confusing and one cannot tell one side from another. I saw tanks being fired and soldiers on the streets using machine guns.

The area near the presidential palace is where the business of
government takes place and at least four military barracks are based
there.

People have fled the area and some civil servants have locked
themselves inside their offices.

Earlier, smoke could be seen from the roof of the office where
President Mamadou Tandja was holding his cabinet meeting.

But Reuters news agency spoke to other people inside the palace who said things were “all right”.

“We can hear gunshots from time to time but… the president is in his
office,” a security source told Reuters by telephone.

Our correspondent says sporadic shooting can still be heard.

A witness told AFP that the bodies of three soldiers had been taken to a military mortuary.

But the situation in Niamey remains unclear, with radio stations
continuing their programmes as normal and apparently there has been no large-scale deployment of military personnel.

Political tensions have been growing in the West African nation since
Mr Tandja changed the constitution last year to allow him to stand for
a third term.

The government and opposition have been holding on-off talks -
mediated by the regional body Ecowas - to try to resolve the country’s
political crisis.

Mr Tandja, a former army officer, was first voted into office in 1999
and was returned to power in an election in 2004.

Niger has experienced long periods of military rule since independence from France in 1960.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8522227.stm
Published: 2010/02/18 16:09:26 GMT

Armed soldiers storm Niger presidential palace

(AP) NIAMEY, Niger — Witnesses say armed soldiers have stormed the presidential palace with guns blazing and left with the president,
whose whereabouts are unknown.

Moussa Mounkaila, a palace chauffeur, told The Associated Press that the gunmen showed up as a meeting of government ministers was taking place at the place.

A local journalist who was working at the palace, Traore Amadou, says President Mamadou Tandja was taken by the commandos Thursday and his whereabouts are unknown. Only months ago, a referendum allowed Tandja to extend his rule for years past the constitutional limit in the uranium-rich West African nation.

Government officials could not be reached for comment. National radio did not mention the developments in an afternoon report.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
information. AP’s earlier story is below.

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Gunfire broke out Thursday afternoon near the
presidential palace in the uranium-rich West African desert nation of
Niger as government ministers gathered there for a meeting.

The violence comes just months after a referendum was passed allowing President Mamadou Tandja to extend his rule for years past the constitutional limit in the West African nation.

An Associated Press correspondent heard gunshots for about 20 minutes and said frightened residents fled the downtown area of the capital. The gunfire then stopped but the downtown commercial area remained deserted.

There was no immediate comment from Niger’s president, and government officials could not be reached for comment following the gunfire. National radio did not mention the developments in an afternoon report.

The opposition had protested the August 2009 referendum, saying it
granted Tandja near-totalitarian powers. Tandja claimed he was only
pushing to stay in power because his people had demanded it.

After three coups hit Niger between 1974 and 1999, Tandja twice won votes deemed fair. But in the waning months of his final term, he has gone down the path of many long-serving African despots, breaking a promise he had frequently made to step down when his term expired in December.

Troubles began in late May, when he dissolved parliament because it opposed his referendum plan. The move was legal, but in June, he
invoked extraordinary powers to rule by decree. The constitution,
however, says he could only do so if the nation is facing a dire
threat and parliament is in place to monitor abuse.

Days later, the constitutional court ruled his referendum call
illegal. Tandja responded by issuing a decree replacing the court with another, whose members he chose.

Niger is ranked fifth from last on the U.N.’s worldwide human
development index and has an astounding 70 percent illiteracy rate.
The nation on the Sahara’s southern edge has been perpetually battered by drought and desertification. And these days, it has the world’s highest population growth rate.

ECOWAS makes Senegal’s Wade Niger crisis mediator

Thu Feb 18, 2010 6:03am GMT

DAKAR (Reuters) - African regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has appointed Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade as mediator in Niger’s political crisis, Senegal said on Wednesday.

Niger’s President Mamadou Tandja drew widespread criticism and
international sanctions last year after dissolving parliament and
orchestrating a constitutional reform that gave him extra powers and
extended his term beyond his second five-year mandate, which expired in December.

“(President Wade) will work on that (Niger) case with the former
mediator, General Abdusalami Abubakar and a representative of the
African Union,” a spokesman for Wade said in a statement.

Wade successfully mediated in a political crisis in Mauritania but
some of his domestic opponents say he should deal with a long-running conflict in the southern Senegalese province of Casamance.

On Monday, two soldiers were killed by suspected separatists there.

More than 10,000 anti-government protesters gathered in Niger’s
capital Niamey on Sunday, demanding Tandja reverse last year’s changes to the constitution.

Heightened tensions in the uranium exporting central African country
come amid stalled negotiations between Tandja’s government and ECOWAS, which suspended the country’s membership last year.

Despite political turmoil and occasional Tuareg rebellions, Niger has
attracted billions of dollars in investment from major international
firms seeking to tap its mineral wealth, including France’s Areva and
Canada’s Cameco.

ECOWAS this week held a summit meeting in Abuja, capital of Nigeria.

Niger: As Country Faces Severe Food Shortages, UN and Partners Appeal for Aid

10 February 2010
——————————————————————————–
With 7.8 million people in Niger - or three fifths of the population -
facing Niger talks suspended again

afrol News, 12 February - Niger talks have hit yet another hard rock
after the opposition accused government of refusing to adhere to
suggestions by mediator and former Nigerian President General
Abdusalami Abubaka.

A leading member of Niger’s opposition coalition, Bazoum Mohammed, said President Mamadou Tandja’s government is to blame for the breakdown of negotiations to resolve an ongoing political crisis.

The dialogue, which began last year on 21 December and has been
interrupted several times, failed again after two conflicting sides
could not reach an understanding on the new draft agreement submitted by Abdulsalami Abubakar, the mediator of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The draft accord proposes that President Mamadou Tandja remains in office during the period of transition. It also envisages an
opposition prime minister, a new constitution and fresh general
elections.

President Tandja dissolved parliament in May last year and extended
his term by way of a referendum on 4 August, which was boycotted by
the opposition.

Political observers have suggested that the West African regional bloc might consider stiffer sanctions against President Tandja’s government over the breakdown of negotiations.

With moderate to severe food insecurity, the United Nations and its
non-governmental organization (NGO) partners today appealed for
international aid to help the Government of the impoverished West
African country overcome imminent shortages.

“It is imperative to support the Government in its efforts to mobilize
the resources to satisfy the food needs of the most vulnerable,”
resident UN Humanitarian Coordinator Khardiata Lo N’Diaye said.

She noted that a national food security assessment completed in
December showed that 2.7 million people suffered faced severe food
insecurity, and another 5.1 million faced moderate food insecurity,
with more than half the total population having less than two months”
food stocks until the next harvest, not expected until October.

“The United Nations and their partners in close cooperation with the
national authorities to respond rapidly to identified priorities,” the
Coordinator said.

An irregular, spottily distributed and prematurely shortened rainy
season in 2009 led to insufficient cereal and fodder production for
people and livestock, and the Government is currently evaluating how
much more funding is needed.

“There is good reason to fear that this situation seriously threatens
food security in the short term and undermines efforts made so far,”
Ms. Lo N’Diaye said.

“We must act at once, and together.”

In 2005, when Niger faced severe food shortages because of drought, the UN launched a variety of initiatives, including funding appeals, to stave off potential famine that threatened nearly 3 million people and had already killed thousands of children.

Niger talks suspended again

afrol News, 12 February - Niger talks have hit yet another hard rock
after the opposition accused government of refusing to adhere to
suggestions by mediator and former Nigerian President General
Abdusalami Abubaka.

A leading member of Niger’s opposition coalition, Bazoum Mohammed,said President Mamadou Tandja’s government is to blame for the breakdown of negotiations to resolve an ongoing political crisis.

The dialogue, which began last year on 21 December and has been
interrupted several times, failed again after two conflicting sides
could not reach an understanding on the new draft agreement submitted by Abdulsalami Abubakar, the mediator of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The draft accord proposes that President Mamadou Tandja remains in office during the period of transition. It also envisages an
opposition prime minister, a new constitution and fresh general
elections.

President Tandja dissolved parliament in May last year and extended
his term by way of a referendum on 4 August, which was boycotted by
the opposition.

Political observers have suggested that the West African regional bloc might consider stiffer sanctions against President Tandja’s government over the breakdown of negotiations.

Niger: French Nuclear Power Fed by Uranium From Country
Khadija Sharife

14 January 2010
——————————————————————————–
Opinion

It is known as the ‘uranium highway,’ a network of major roads
connecting the Niger’s primary urban mining centres such as Arlit,
Agadez and Niamey.

Developed in the 1970s and 1980s, the north-south highway acts as the primary vein facilitating carriage of liquidated uranium resources.
The network itself forms part of the Trans-Sahara route, an ancient
system used since time immemorial by inhabitants of the ‘Tinariwen’ - or Desert of Many, as the Sahara was known to its native sons and daughters, including the Hausa and Tuareg.

Despite the nip and tuck of territories by former colonialists,
conveniently stitching together concessional nation-states (the better
to divide, conquer and exploit), the Trans-Sahara route continued to
survive by innovatively moving around border closures. Central to this
route is the landlocked Niger, the bridge between North and
sub-Saharan Africa, a land bordered by seven countries.

The Sahara, spanning 11 countries, composes 80 per cent of the Niger’s land mass - a country generally characterised by poverty, famine, droughts and dictatorships. Over 60 per cent of the population live on the poverty belt, deprived of access to food, water and waste sanitation, infrastructure and education. Life expectancy is pegged at 43 years, and most citizens, including 71 percent of females, are illiterate - just three per cent of the state budget is redistributed toward education.

Instead, at the turn of the millennium, over 50 per cent of
development finance was used to service odious debt. Debt
cancellation, following Niger’s qualification in 2000 for the IMF’s
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, required mass
privatisation of the Niger’s state- owned enterprises and provided
partial relief. Nonetheless, in 2004, IMF directors would conclude
that the country’s debt burden remained high in spite of ’structural
adjustment’ medicine.

The Niger, exporting 7.7 per cent of the world’s uranium, consistently
ranks in the top five alongside Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan, and
produces on par with Russia. The town of Arlit alone largely supplies
the country’s former colonial landlord, France, with the uranium
required to power up the latter’s nuclear programme and power stations - generating almost 80 per cent of France’s electricity via an
estimated 59 nuclear plants.

Uranium was initially discovered in Niger in 1957 by the Bureau Minier de la France d’Outre-Mer, one year prior to the creation of Republic of the Niger. This followed in the footsteps of extensive surveys conducted by France’s Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA), which started in 1956 and resulted in several discoveries on the eve of independence in 1960. France’s successful decolonisation in Africa was realised through secretive military and resource agreements and special monetary zones.

These agreements interlocked the interests of France with those of
handpicked ‘native governors,’ such as Gabon and Togo’s Gnassingbé Eyadéma and Omar Bongo - both lifetime leaders from selective political liberation until death - and Cote d’Ivoire’s Felix
Houphout-Boigny.

As a result, France was not only granted preferential priority access to strategic resources, but the presence of French military bases in former colonies was legitimised, simultaneously sustaining the rule of dictators while keeping them in line. From the 1960s onwards, 27 agreements were signed by former colonies, including
the Niger.

French interests on the continent were realised through France’s
postcolonial Africa policy, known as Françafrique, extending to the
diplomatic and political echelons of the Elysée from the days of de
Gaulle. The policy comprised corporate and intelligence lobbies,
multinationals intimately connected to the State such as Elf and
Areva, French-backed dictators, and shadow networks named in honour of its masterminds such as Jacques Foccart, de Gaulle’s chief Africa advisor who was called out of retirement at age 81 by French President Jacque Chirac to resume activities. Chirac himself would declare in the early 1990s that the continent ‘was not yet ready for democracy.’

When asked to describe the role of Françafrique’s Foccart, de Gaulle’s Deputy Prime Minister Louis Joxe declared, ‘Nurse-maiding presidents and making sure that African civil servants are paid at the end of the month.’

Uranium deposits, found in the Congo, Gabon and the Niger, have
enabled France to circumvent flammable geopolitical landmines
associated with uranium mined in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia, regions that were perceived as leaning towards, or managed by, the US - France’s rival in Africa and globally.

Resource-hungry China, with a rapidly expanding footprint in Africa -
extending over US$24 billion in loans since 2003, chiefly backed by
resources - is also considered a threat to French interests.

Presently, France maintains 10,000 specialised soldiers on the
continent, many of them based in Libreville, Gabon, also known as
‘Foccartland.’ From 1997 to 2002, France militarily intervened 36
times; 24 of these incidents were conducted outside the umbrella of
the UN. The Françafrique policy has continued under Nicholas Sarkozy, with French soldiers still intervening in domestic disputes.

Since the days of flag independence, the Niger’s Diori Hamani and his political party, the Parti Progressiste Nigérien (PPP), indirectly
handpicked by France, ruled the country aided by various covert and
overt interventions beginning in 1963. Thanks to a secretive defence
agreement, French soldiers based in Niamey collaborated with Hamani to obliterate and exile the opposition, such as Union Nigerienne Democratique.

Hamani ran unopposed in 1965 and 1970, but made the fatal error of
requesting the removal of French troops in the early 1970s. France
duly removed the troops. Not surprisingly, thereafter a military coup
brought Colonel Seyni Kountche to power. In 1987 Kountche was killed and succeeded by Colonel Ali Saibou.

Fast-forward to the Niger’s electoral authoritarianism under dictator
Tandja Mamadou. Currently, the Niger’s 12,000 armed forces are guided by 15 French military advisors, with Nigerien personnel largely trained, armed and financed by France, protecting five critical
defence zones - namely geostrategic routes and mines. The Niger’s two key mines are controlled by Areva, the world’s leading nuclear entity, controlled by the Elysée via the company’s majority shareholder, France’s state-owned CEA.

With a presence in 43 countries, extending to every aspect in the
commodity chain from extraction to enrichment, propulsion, recycling
and dismantling, and 16 billion in sales revenue, Areva’s powerful
mobile economy dwarfs that of many ‘developing nations.’ The Niger’s mines (underground and open pit mines) are operated by Areva subsidiaries COMINAK and SOMAIR, accounting for 75-90 per cent of the country’s export earnings. A contract between Areva and Mamadou’s government, signed in January 2009, to exploit Imouraren’s uranium reserves, is estimated to produce 5,000 tons per annum, with a life of 40 years.

Production is slated to begin in 2012, with an investment of 1.2
billion. COMINAK and SOMAIRE currently produce almost 5,000 tons. ‘The subject of uranium and the agreements that are linked with uranium are highly strategic in nature, placed at the level of relations between states,’ stated Publish What You Pay’s (PWYP) National Coordinator Idriss Ali.

‘These agreements took the form of a neo-colonial framework that led to the signing of mining agreements establishing the functioning of the SOMAIR (1968) and the COMINAK (1975), which are nothing other than a bias contract, making available the uranium in Niger to France. Under these conditions, the choice is of the buyers of the product; setting its price in the international market is the prerogative of the former colonial power,’ he stated.

Since 2007, the Niger government, in an attempt to diversify the
uranium industry, awarded 122 exploration licences to multinationals
from France, in addition to companies from the US, South Africa,
China, Canada and Australia.

China’s state-owned uranium firm, SINO-U, will invest US$300 million to exploit deposits at the Somina mine, near Agadez, producing 700 tons per annum from 2010. Meanwhile, the US’s Exelon Corporation signed agreements with the government to access 300 tons each year for a period of 10 years.

But the government has also further diversified the type of
commodities exploited, including oil (the subject of a US$5 billion
deal with China’s National Petroleum Corporation) and gold (already
the third largest primary commodity exported, accounting for 13 per
cent of resource rent). But France remains both the single largest
source of investment and the primary force effecting geostrategic
control over, and exploiting, the Niger’s uranium resources.

According to Areva, by 2006, the company had reached the threshold of 100,000 tons of extracted uranium. The Niger government received 300 billion CFA francs of a total 2,300 billion CFA francs in sales revenue. Mining activities, largely centred on uranium, generate
between 2.4 per cent and 4 per cent of the Niger’s GDP.

Areva also remains the largest employer in the country, following the government, with 1,850 people on the direct payroll and more than 4,000 indirect jobs through subcontractors and general supply services. ‘Our sustainable investments in water and health represent a contribution of more than 3 million CFA francs annually,’ stated the company.

Yet it is precisely Areva’s environmental investment claims that have
resulted in the country being up in arms, especially on the subject of
the use of non-renewable water sources for COMINAK’s underground mine and the leakages of radioactive matter, including the contamination of water, air and soil; the use of lethal radioactive scrap metal for sale in markets; radioactive ore used to build roads; and dumped radioactive tailings (pulverised uranium rock). ‘When we visited the Niger, we were told by officials, ‘Here in Niger, you are in France.’

If there is a problem in Niger, the problem goes back to France, to
Areva,’ said Bruno Chareyron, a physicist and laboratory manager with French NGO CRIIRAD (the Commission for Independent Research and Information about Radioactivity), who produced a damning report.

CRIIRAD’s reports documented various findings, including 20 million
tons of carcinogenic radioactive tailings stored in open air;
radioactive materials from the company disposed of and sold in markets through scrap merchants; discharge of toxic gasses from COMINAK’s mines as well as exploitation of finite water sources underground; contamination of water sources; and violation of international radioprotection standards, among others.

‘When we released the results to the press, Areva organised a press
trip to the Niger and paid for a plane to take a team of 30
journalists to the country - but there was no Geiger counter, no real
or tangible way to discern the levels of radiation. They could have
been standing on radioactive rocks built into the street and not known
differently,’ said Chareyron. He also revealed that a laboratory
contracted by the multinational to monitor radiation disproved the
company’s claims. Areva claimed that the Niger government was solely responsible for regulation systems.

Meanwhile, the government of the Niger itself appears to exhibit the
same lack of concern as the corporation. The country’s official
institution monitoring ionising radiation, the National Centre for
Radiation Protection (CNRP), when inspected by CRIIRAD was found to be idle. Explained CRIIRAD’s Chareyron, ‘CNRP could not carry out analysis due to the fact that their only Gamma spectrometer was broken - a wire had been out of place since the machine was initially delivered to them.’

But citizens in the Niger have not been idle. The Niger Movement for
Justice, active since 2007, led by a former official from the Niger
Armed Forces, has demanded a greater share of uranium revenue,
protection from ecological degradation and access to constitutional
rights such as water and waste sanitation, education and electricity.
The government has dismissed the armed civil society movement as
anti-democratic ‘drug smugglers.’

It goes without saying that the Niger cannot actually access any of
the uranium mined within its borders: 100 per cent of electricity (225
million kWh) is derived from fossil fuels and imported largely from
neighbouring Nigeria. France, though, is well aware of the situation.
‘Until now, it is impossible for French citizens and civil society to
obtain the content of such ’secret agreements’ concerning access and control of resources - it is confidential,’ stated Sebastian Alzerreca of Survie, a French-based NGO. But, he cautioned, ‘If diplomacy fails, they can still send the gunman in.’ No doubt, the uranium highway will come in handy.

Khadija Sharife is a freelance journalist and writer. She is currently
a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) and a
researcher with the Tax Justice Network.