Niger rebels attack power plant in uranium area

NIAMEY, July 5 -Rebels in Niger's remote north attacked the compound of an electricity company that powers the area's towns and uranium mines, but government troops fought them off, rebel and military sources said on Thursday.Northern rebels have made a series of attacks on government and mining interests in the impoverished West African state, killing 15 government soldiers and abducting over 70 more a fortnight ago in their worst raid yet.Some 30 wounded soldiers were later released.In the latest attack, late on Wednesday, the rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) said its fighters attacked a compound of state-controlled coal mining and power company SONICHAR, which powers Niger's two uranium firms, both part French-owned.A statement on its website (http://m-n-j.blogspot.com/) said the rebel fighters spent several hours at the compound, although a gendarme (paramilitary police) officer said government troops forced them to leave after half an hour."Some of them are probably wounded, as the soldiers found traces of blood," said the officer, who declined to be named.Both sides said they had not lost any men in the fighting at the compound at Tchirozerine, about 35 km (22 miles) northwest of the main northern city Agadez.Northern Niger has seen sporadic unrest since a rebellion in the 1990s by light-skinned Tuaregs and other nomadic tribes against the black African-led government based in the south.As well as uranium, the area's iron ore, silver, platinum and titanium have attracted foreign mining firms as minerals prices have risen. But Niger remains one of the poorest nations on earth, ranking bottom of the U.N. Human Development Index.
To read more go to:
http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSL05647970._CH_.2400
As in the days of Noah....