They race horses, don't they?

Check out the great photos and text of Niger’s horse racing season, which recently ended in Zinder.

Another radio closure in Niger

Niger’s Higher Council for Communication closed down for an “indefinite period” an Agadez-based privately-owned radio station for allegedly broadcasting interviews with people who have been the victims of human rights violations by government soldiers, Reporters Without Borders said.

Raliou Hamed-Assaleh, manager of Sahara FM, told the Paris-based journalist organization that he was summonsed to Niamey April 18 after a northern-based governor and chief of police accused the station of broadcasting “dangerous” statements and appealing to ethnic hate and violence.

He told the group: “All we did was broadcast an account of something that happened.”

The government also told Hamed-Assaleh the station could face possible prosecution.

Amnesty International, in an April 3 report, cited a new wave of executions and forced disappearances of civilians committed by government troops fighting the Tuareg-led Movement for Nigerian Justice.

On August 24, 2007, the Nigerien government decreed a state of alert – which has been extended to May 24 – making it illegal for journalists to quote members of the rebellion or for reporters to speak with them. The ban also covers any live debates regarding the military and political situation in the north.

On March 12, the government suspended local broadcasts of Radio France International after the French network held a day of solidarity for correspondent Moussa Kaka, who has been in prison since September 20 for alleged ties with members of the rebellion. Kaka was recently brought before a judge protesting the government’s case against him centers on phone and wire taps, which are not admissible under state law.

Niger getting into the Patriot act

Staring down the barrel of a 14-month northern rebellion that has taken the lives of at least 70-soldiers and countless other civilians, the government of Niger recently passed a new anti-terror law, Reuters reports.

The law, ratified Sunday, makes it illegal to posses or manufacture explosive devices or radioactive materials along with the acts of hostage taking and attacking transport.

"The integration of this anti-terrorism law into our judicial structure equips our authorities to fight both effectively and legally this scourge that spares no country," said Justice Minister Dagra Mamadou.

He is most likely speaking about the Tuareg-led Niger Justice Movement, MNJ, which began a rebellion in February 2007 demanding more local political autonomy and a greater share of Niger’s profits made from its extensive uranium mines, located around the northern half of the country. Niger enjoys one of the world’s largest reserves of uranium, a mineral which has seen a nearly seven-fold increase in price since 2000.

The government’s new law comes at the heels of a new report by Amnesty International asserting that Nigerien troops have participated in at least eight extra-judicial executions in Agadez region. The London-based group maintains that the troops killed the civilians between March 22 – 25 as a response to casualties the army faced in skirmishes with the MNJ.

The report also documents instances of torture and beatings by the army, forced disappearances and arrests and soldiers attacking property, burning houses and camps.

The Banana Theory: Are Tuareg rebels in Mali (and Niger) in cahoots with Al-Qaida?

A recurring theme has sprung up regarding the up tick in violence in northern Mali: Are Taureg rebels connected to some broader terror movement? More worrying, are they somehow aligned with Al-Qaida? It’s a theory that has been debunked many times before, but continues to crop up every few months.

In a recent report from VOA, London based human rights activist Ibrahima Kane, says that with instability in the northern lands growing, you cannot miss the parallels.

"There are many rebel groups in that part of Africa. Some of them are supposed to have very strong links with al-Qaida, and there is lots of arms trafficking, many traffics in that part of the region," said Kane.

It’s true that Al-Qaida's north African wing, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, is believed to be holding two Austrian tourists they nabbed in Tunisia at a hideout in northern Mali (or Niger or Algeria).

On the other hand, Anthropologist Jeremy Keenan has long played down the idea of any fruitful relationship between Malian rebels and al-Qaida. He’s brought on to VOA to do the same:

"This is connected geographically but that is totally separate from this rebellion. In other words, the Tuareg rebellion and the Austrian hostage situation are not connected in any way. They just happen to be in the same area, but that is coincidental," he said.

He says links between different armed groups in the region do exist, such as between the Malian and Niger rebels, but they are difficult to define.

"The linkages are very, very complicated.... They involve a lot of history and quite detailed micro-politics and micro-sociology, and so forth but one thing I think I will probably say is the situation in Niger up until these last couple of weeks by and large has been worse than in Mali," he said.

Keenan says he believes the situation in both Mali and Niger has been aggravated by raids by government militaries on civilian areas. The two militaries have been receiving U.S. aid and training to combat terrorism and trafficking in the area.

(He gets so much time airtime compared to Ibrahima Kane that one get’s the idea the “London based human rights activist” was solely contacted for his role to start an empty debate, only to have it debunked. Nonetheless, he was kind enough to oblige.)

Here’s a take from author Sharon Chada (admittedly from September, the last time the Tuareg = Al-Quaida connection was made):

[I]t is the Tuareg, after all, who host the Festival of the Desert every year. And I have to say, I could never quite square reports about them being allied with Al Qaeda with all the music they make, their lifestyle (the men veil, the women don't), not to mention their fierce independence (they've run the desert caravans across the Sahara since Biblical times). I could never quite imagine Bin Laden and company suddenly being enthroned in Tuareg lands…

Anyway, the Iraqi Sunnis get it, and it appears the Tuareg do too: that this, that these Al Qaeda people are never happy just being offered refuge, or someplace to live and educate their kids in safety and prosperity, what they also want is to rule, and in their particularly obnoxious way.

Isn't there something else at work here? It’s the responsibility of any government to secure its borders – however hazy they may be – and insure the respect of its territorial sovereignty. Tuareg rebels may not be terrorists. Fine. But what is their knowledge or connection with the smugglers moving drugs, weapons and people (and cigarettes!) through the desert? In Niger, at least from what they say, a lot. (“…not even a mouse could get through the desert without their knowledge…”) A Tuareg rebel leader from Niger told another VOA reporter that for information regarding smugglers, governments have to come clean with Tuaregs and other nomads and bring them on board as partners.

So far, this isn’t happening. Perhaps that’s the debate we should be having.

In Uranium, declines lead advances as producing countries take a bigger slice of pie

From Bloomberg:

Areva SA, the world's largest nuclear-plant builder, will lose money selling uranium from Niger this year after paying the African state more for mining there, said Yves Dufour, Areva's deputy head of mining.

``We hope to come back to normal margins next year,'' Dufour said in an interview today in Paris. Dufour earlier gave a press conference to detail Areva's operations in Niger and address criticism from local Tuareg tribes.

Mining operations in Canada and other countries will help compensate for Niger, which accounts for 40 percent of Areva's uranium production, Dufour said.

Uranium-producing nations such as Niger, the world's No. 5 supplier of the metal and one of the world's poorest countries, are demanding stiffer terms after global prices rose sevenfold in the past five years. The French state-owned company, based in Paris, agreed in January to pay 50 percent more to Niger for mining there. Areva had already agreed on a 40 percent increase last August.

``The uranium bonanza won't be as great as mining companies had imagined,'' said Landsbanki Kepler analyst Pierre Boucheny. ``Producing countries now want a share of the pie.''

Happy anniversary, rebellion: MNJ releases 25 prisoners

The Tuareg-led rebel movement in Niger has released two dozen military officers and a regional governor who have been held captive for the past few months.

Their release was brokered by the government of Libya, which then flew the hostages from Agadez to Niamey, the country’s capital.

The Niger Movement for Justice, or MNJ, claimed it released the hostages to mark the one-year anniversary of their uprising. They have demanded more integration of Tuaregs into the army, a greater decentralized government (especially in the north) and up to 15 percent of profits on uranium, which is mined in the northern part of the country. In 2000, uranium sold for $7 per pound; today it sells for nearly $90.

The Nigerien government has long claimed the MNJ is a splinter group of bandits and drug smugglers, fighting to keep their supply routes active.

Niger: Jailed editor sentenced to one month in prison, fined

A court in Niamey sentenced editor Aboubacar Gourouza to one month in prison on March 6. His charge: “discrediting” a court decision, Agence-France Presse reported.

Gourouza, editor of the independent bi-monthly L'Eveil Plus, has already spent a month in custody. He was also fined 50,000 FCFA (€76).

According to the International Federation of Journalists, in a January 29 edition, Gourouza compared two cases of embezzlement involving two local officials: one from of Maradi, in the southern part of the country, and the second in Niamey. Authorities provisionally released the mayor of Maradi while the mayor Niamey remained in custody. In the story, Gourouza stated the trial of Ganda was not advancing “as if this slowness was fine for some business” and looked like “a political payback time,” IFJ reported.

Bouboucar Diallo, member of the Association of Editors of the Independent Press, told AFP that “we’re surprised and very discouraged by this attitude.”

In case you forgot, Moussa Kaka, Radio France International reporter, has been imprisoned since September 2007 for alleged links to the rebel group Niger Movement for Justice. On February 12, a Niamey appeals court refused to release Kaka on bail although prosecutor’s evidence of taped phone calls is not legally admissible evidence in Niger.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. government development program, recently announced a three-year $23 million grant for the government of Niger to tackle corruption and strengthen girls’ access to education.

Since its inception in 2004, MCC has claimed it will only work with countries that demonstrate a commitment to policies promoting economic freedom, education investments, the control of corruption and a respect for civil liberties and the rule of law.

Niger denies visa to head of Reporters Without Borders

Much like the years following the death of Norbert Zongo when the Burkina government denied Robert Ménard entry to the country, Niger appears to be following suit.

The government of Niger has refused to provide Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard with a visa for a trip he was to have made to Niamey to participate from there in a special day of solidarity with the organisation’s imprisoned correspondent, Moussa Kaka, which Radio France Internationale is organising on 10 March.

After submitting a visa application to Niger’s embassy in Paris on 19 February, Ménard was notified seven days later that his request had been denied. Communication minister and government spokesman Mohammed Ben Omar subsequently confirmed the refusal to him by telephone.

“We deplore this discriminatory treatment, which is not in Niger’s interests,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We hope the government will not persist in this attitude, which will just perpetuate the status quo and hurt Niger’s image even more.”

Niger extends state of emergency in north

From Reuters:

Niger's President Mamadou Tandja extended a state of alert in the desert north, home to some of the world's largest uranium reserves, where security forces have been battling an uprising led by Tuareg nomads.

The announcement prolonged for a further three months from Sunday extra powers of arrest first given to the security forces in August in the region around the northern town of Agadez.

The rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) has killed at least 50 soldiers and taken dozens hostage since launching a revolt a year ago to demand more autonomy and a greater share of mining revenues.

As the Associated Press, points out:

The alert…gives the army the boosted powers to conduct security operations, patrols, search homes and carry out identity checks. It does not institute a curfew or other regulations that would affect daily life.

The state of emergency will last for three more months, but can be extended again.

Run for the hills: Flesh-eating dinosaurs found in Niger

From Agence-France Presse:

Two strange new flesh-eating dinosaurs which hunted the rich forests of Africa some 110 million years ago have been unearthed in Niger, researchers said Thursday.

Both ran quickly on powerful hind legs with the aid of a long tail and competed for prey with a third creature, which was previously discovered and which hunted both in and out of the water.

But the three massive predators likely divided up the rich spoils based upon how their body structures impacted their hunting capacities, said lead author Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago.

The heavy-browed 40-foot long Eocarcharia dinops, or "fierce-eyed dawn shark," was likely the main predator as its powerful claws and teeth could tear limbs and flesh off its prey.

Its brow was swollen into a massive band of bone, giving it a menacing glare, that may have been used as a battering ram against rivals for mating rights.

The short-snouted 25-foot long Kryptops palaios, or "old hidden face," also discovered in 2000, was likely a scavenger because of its short forearms and an armored snout better suited for digging into carcasses than for snapping at live prey.

The sail-backed 36-foot long Suchomimus or "crocodile mimic," which Sereno discovered in 1997, likely feasted mostly on fish because of its long, narrow snout and hook-like teeth.

Niger: Journalist Moussa Kaka remains in jail

This story is only an hour old, so check the link for updates.

From Reuters:

A court in Niger has refused a request for the provisional release of a journalist working for French radio station RFI detained last September for suspected links to Tuareg rebels, legal sources said on Tuesday.

Moussa Kaka, director of a private radio station and RFI's Niger correspondent, was arrested on Sept. 20 and accused of receiving gifts or direct payment for reports on the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ), a rebel group in the desert north.

RFI says the only contact Kaka, who is from Niger, had with the rebellion was through his work as a journalist.

An appeals court in the capital Niamey on Tuesday rejected a request for Kaka's provisional release and overruled a previous court decision that phone-tap evidence presented by the government against Kaka was illegal.

Niger: Another journalist released from prison; investigation will continue

After spending more than four months in prison, editor Ibrahim Manzo Diallo was released from prison by a court of appeals.

Diallo, the managing editor of the fortnightly Air Info from Agadez, was originally arrested on Oct. 9 for allegedly “conspiring with a movement to undermine national security,” a reference to his alleged relationship with members of the one-year-old rebellion against the country’s government.

From Afriquenligne:

According to Accra-based Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), the court's decision followed a request filed by Diallo's counsel, Moussa Coulibaly, seeking his release, "because the prosecution had failed to provide evidence to warrant his continued stay in prison".

However, the government’s investigation will continue. Diallo’s lawyer, Moussa Coulibaly, told Reporters Without Borders : “The prosecutor will convey the judge’s decision to the prosecutor-general, who will sign the provisional release order. Ibrahim will still be under judicial investigation, but he will be freed some time today.”

Also, the government will issue a ruling Tuesday, February 12 regarding the case of Moussa Kaka, manager of Radio Saraouniya and Niger Correspondent of Radio France Internationale. The appeal court will decide whether transcripts of tapped phone conversations – a legal grey area in Niger – can be used as evidence in the case.

Niger journalist out on bail; investigation continues

From VOA

An appeals court in Niger has ruled that detained journalist Ibrahim Manzo should be granted a provisional release.

Manzo's attorney Moussa Coulibaly says his client will be freed Wednesday after spending four months in prison.

The lawyer says Manzo, chief editor of the newspaper "Air Info," will remain under investigation.

He was detained in October on charges of "criminal association" for allegedly having contact with the Tuareg rebels of the Movement of Niger People for Justice (MNJ).

Last year, the government of Niger temporarily shut down "Air Info" because of the paper's coverage of an attack by rebels on government forces.

From Reporters Without Borders:

“We hail this sensible decision by the judicial authorities and we are delighted for Diallo, his family and colleagues,” the press freedom organisation said. “We hope this bodes well for next week, when the same court is to issue a decision on the case of another detained journalist, Moussa Kaka.”

MNJ hands two hostages over to Red Cross and nabs a few more

From Agence France Presse:

Niger's Tuareg rebels handed two civilian hostages requiring medical treatment over to a Red Cross mission visiting their prisoners, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Saturday.

The ICRC said the mission to northern Niger between January 26 and February 1 had seen 33 prisoners, mainly members of government forces, who had been able to talk to their families by satellite telephone or write them messages.

They had also been given medical aid, blankets, clothing and other supplies.

But only two people, who needed urgent medical care, had left with the mission, the ICRC said, without specifying if they were civilian or military.

They had been taken to the town of Arlit where they were handed over to government authorities.

Also, government officials admitted that the Tuareg rebels, the Movement of Nigeriens for Justice, had recently captured two other civilians, including a teacher and an Imam. The recent abductions come after a 21 January attack on Tanhout when the group kidnapped a regional governor and four soldiers, in a move that Amnesty International claims breaks international law against involving civilians in military disputes.

The MNJ said on its website that the group would treat the prisoners “well.”

Niger: Driver of French journalists freed

From Reporters Without Borders:

Al-Hassane Abdourahman, the driver of French journalists Thomas Dandois and Pierre Creisson, was released today without having to pay bail, Reporters Without Borders has learned from his lawyer. The organisation is delighted by the decision, taken by the investigating judge in charge of the case.

Abdourahman had been held in Kollo prison camp (20 km south of Niamey) on a charge of "complicity in a violation of state security." His lawyer, Daouda Samna, filed a request for his release on 18 January after a similar request submitted by the lawyer of the two French journalists was accepted. "He left the prison this morning and is now with his family," Samna said.

Both Dandois and Creisson were freed on bail late last week.

Niger: MNJ attacks northern town, abducts governor, kills seven soldiers

In a daring raid on a town in northern Niger, members of the Movement of Nigeriens for Justice captured a regional governor, several soldiers and a large cache of weapons, Agence France Presse reported.

The group claimed at 6 pm, January 21 it attacked Tanhout, a small town 200 km southeast of Agadez. It was the first time the group, known as its French acronym MNJ, captured a Nigerien citizen in their 11-month rebellion in northern Niger. During the raid, the MNJ claimed to have killed seven soldiers.

The governor of Zinder, a town to the east of Tanhout, Yahaya Yandaka confirmed Tanhout was attacked by an unknown number of men "moving around on three 4WD vehicles mounted with 12.7 mm machine guns".

Yandaka, speaking Tuesday on national radio said the attack left three people dead -- two soldiers and one civilian -- and six others wounded, five of them seriously.

He said a total of five people were taken prisoner: four soldiers, including one officer and the prefect of Tanhout Abdou Garba Kona.

Another two soldiers are reported missing, he said.

On it’s website, the MNJ claimed it targeted the Prefet of Tanout because of his “anti-republican acts” and the fact he held a meeting attempt to threaten officials into reporting locals who support the rebellion.

The killing of the seven soldiers puts the Niger military’s death toll over 50. The MNJ claims they are fighting for a higher percentage of profits from Niger’s uranium mines.

The government has insisted that leaders of the MNJ are merely bandits and smugglers without support among people in the north. The BBC claimed that some parts of Niger are calling on Niger President Mamadou Tandja to reconsider his position of not negotiating with the rebels.

French reporters freed from bail in Niger

Sorry, we dropped the ball on this one.

From Reuters

A judge in Niger has ordered the release on bail of two French television journalists who could face the death penalty if convicted of colluding with northern Tuareg rebels, their lawyer said on Friday.

The two reporters for European TV station ARTE, Thomas Dandois and Pierre Creisson, were arrested in mid-December for violating the terms of their media accreditation by filming rebel fighters in the Sahara instead of reporting about bird flu, as they had said they would.

Bail was set at 10 million CFA francs, their lawyer Coulibaly Moussa said.

"We are trying to get together the deposit," he told Reuters. "We are optimistic about their trial because they were just doing their job."

The fate of their driver, Al-Hassane Abdourahman, remains unknown. The reporters hope he will also be freed soon.

Creisson and Dandois arrived in Niger and initially told authorities they would be traveling to the southern part of the country to compile a report on bird flu. However, they traveled north wishing to speak to members of the rebel movement, against the government ban. They were arrested shortly before arriving back in Niamey, the capital.

Presently two Nigerien journalists remain behind bars. Moussa Kaka, director of a private radio station and Radio France International’s Niger correspondent, has been detained since September 26 and also faces the death sentence for “complicity to undermine the security of the state.” The second, Ibrahim Manzo, manager of the bi-weekly newspaper Air Info based in the northern city of Agadez, remains in custody after being arrested October 9.

Looking for the clampdown: French journalists face prosecutor in Niger; questions over press freedom remain

The two French journalists facing a possible death sentence for “undermining state security” in Niger were in court Tuesday, January 15 for a pretrial hearing.

Pierre Creisson and Thomas Dandois, the journalists employed by the Franco-German TV Arte, were arrested by state authorities in mid-December for allegedly visiting Tuareg rebels in northern Niger, which broke state laws against any reporting associated with the 11-month old northern rebellion, sometimes called the Second Tuareg Rebellion.

The two journalists arrived in Niger and initially told authorities they would be traveling to the southern part of the country to compile a report on bird flu. However, they traveled north wishing to speak to members of the rebel movement, against the government ban. They were arrested shortly before arriving back in Niamey, the capital.

During the hearing, Creisson was called before the prosecutor, but his colleague Dandois remains in prison some 30 km south of the capital. Agence France Press claims that Niger military sources have viewed the video filmed by the journalists and found scenes of soldiers captured by the MNJ in chains.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented numerous human rights abuses by combatants on both sides of the conflict. Yet the government-sanctioned blockade of information has dimmed any prospects of following-up claims of human rights violations.

Press freedom questions
The trial highlights the questions of press freedom, where 14 journalists have been arrested since mid-2007 for breaking the government’s information edict relating to the rebellion.

Presently two Nigerien journalists remain behind bars. Moussa Kaka, director of a private radio station and Radio France International’s Niger correspondent, has been detained since September 26 and also faces the death sentence for “complicity to undermine the security of the state.” The second, Ibrahim Manzo, manager of the bi-weekly newspaper Air Info based in the northern city of Agadez, remains in custody after being arrested October 9.

As the rebellion remains a topic off-limits to journalists, a few media watchdog organizations argue, counter intuitively, that Niger actually enjoys more than a modicum of press freedom.

From IRIN, UN-based news agency:

We are concerned about what is happening in Niger but I certainly wouldn’t say it is the worst country in West Africa,” the head of RSF’s Africa programme, Leonard Vincent, told IRIN, pointing to The Gambia as a much more dangerous place for reporters.

With four private television stations, more than 30 private radios, and dozens of independent newspapers in the capital, Niamey, Vincent said Niger actually has one of the most vibrant and unregulated media industries on the continent.

“There is real press freedom in Niger,” he said.

...

Aissata Fall Bagna, head of the corruption watchdog Transparency International in Niger, said the media crackdown began in mid-2007 when the government started responding to a newly formed rebel movement operating in the north of the country.
...

“Everyone talks about corruption freely in Niger,” she said, also dismissing the MFWA’s allegations that journalists in Niger face more repression than in some other West African countries.

“There are no taboos when it comes to reporting on corruption and development, and journalists let people have all the information they need about this, as well as other development, commerce and food security related subjects,” she said.

Free press advocates and development specialists have long claimed that an uninhibited media that can check corruption and provide a proper forum for public opinion is necessary for a country’s economic and social development.

As IRIN points out, regardless of the clampdown on information and the arrests of journalists, the country enjoyed progress in key indexes, such as the UNDP’s Human Development Index (moving up four places) and a pat on the back from the World Bank for reducing corruption and improving democracy.

Backgrounder

The government has long portrayed the Mouvement des Nigériens pour la justice, the MNJ, the group spearheading the rebellion as bandits and drug smugglers with little or no support from the general population of northern Niger.

Aid organizations have complained that because of violence and government decree, the north of Niger has largely been sealed off, making emergency operations impossible.

The indigenous and formally pastoral Tuaregs claim the government is not fulfilling economic development and political requirements from the 1995 peace deal, which ended their 1990s uprising. According to a Voice of America reporter once embedded with the MNJ, mineral revenues from the uranium-rich north lie at the heart of the group’s grievances.

As uranium reaches it's highest price in nearly four decades, the government has signed multi-million dollar deals with multiple international mining concerns.

Heavy metal love affair: AREVA and Niger hug it out and fix a price

Areva, the French nuclear concern which recently saw its 30 year monopoly of Niger uranium end a few months back, renegotiated the price it will pay the West African country to mine the heavy metal

In a two-year agreement, Areva will pay nearly 50 percent more than the €60 per kilo price for uranium, which was negotiated this summer, Thomson Financial reported. Before that, the firm paid €42 per kilo, while uranium is now going for nearly €180 per kilo and currently enjoys its highest price in 40 years.

Here is backgrounder on some issues that existed between Areva and the Government of Niger.

This is from Thomson Financial:

The company also said it received government agreement to launch mining at the Imouraren deposit and to extend its exploration scope, confirming its role as a mine operator in Niger for the coming decades.

Areva plans to invest over 1 bln eur in the Imouraren mine, making it the biggest industrial mining project ever under consideration in Niger and placing it at the second world rank with almost 5,000 tons of uranium produced annually.

Agence France Presse points out, Areva is the country’s largest private employer and the French government supplies Niger with €8 million in aid per year.

Niger journalist killed in mine attack; government blames Tuaregs

I am real late on this. Abdou Mahaman Jeannot, the director of Niger’s first private radio station in Niger has been killed in a landmine explosion just outside the capital

Witnesses said Jeannot ran over the anti-tank device in his car while in Yantala, an upscale suburb of Niamey. A woman traveling with him was seriously injured.

He is the third civilian to die in explosions caused by landmines in the southern part of the country since December.

The government immediately blamed Tuareg rebels for the attack, calling their actions "terrorism."

From the Committee to Protect Journalists:

No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion and it is unclear whether the journalist was deliberately targeted, but authorities say they have opened an investigation into the incident. Yantala is a residential area for many high-ranking army officers, a local journalist told CPJ. The explosion took place near an electricity plant that supplies Niamey. This was the first landmine blast near the capital city in recent memory, although many major cities throughout the country have been hit with such explosions since a civil conflict began in February 2007; the government is fighting a rebel group called the Movement for Justice in Niger.