UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown offers military aid to oil rich Nigeria

From The Independent
Friday, 11 July 2008
By Daniel Howden, Kim Sengupta, Colin Brown and Claire Soares

Brown blunders in pledge to secure Nigeria oil



Photo: Militant groups in the Niger Delta have targeted multinational oil firms (AP)

PM's offer of military aid to Nigeria provokes collapse of ceasefire amid angry claims that UK has 'declared war' on rebel army

Gordon Brown is being accused of preparing for a military adventure in Africa after he pledged to provide backing to the Nigerian security forces. His announcement prompted the collapse of a ceasefire in the oil-rich Niger Delta and helped to drive up crude oil prices on world markets.

The Prime Minister's offer to help "tackle lawlessness" in the world's eighth largest oil producer was immediately condemned by the main militant group in the Delta, which abandoned a two-week-old ceasefire and accused Britain of backing what it calls Nigeria's "illegal government". The group issued a "stern warning" to Mr Brown in an emailed statement: "Should Gordon Brown make good his threat to support this criminality for the sake of oil, UK citizens and interests in Nigeria will suffer the consequences."

Speaking at the close on Wednesday of the meeting in Japan of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations, Mr Brown said that the UK was ready to offer the Nigerian military direct assistance to help return law and order to the southern region and to restore oil output.

The Prime Minister said: "We stand ready to give help to the Nigerians to deal with lawlessness that exists in this area and to achieve the levels of production that Nigeria is capable of, but because of the law and order problems has not been able to achieve." His comments came ahead of a visit to London by the Nigerian President, Umaru Yar'Adua, next week in which he is expected to appeal for military aid to put down militant groups who have attacked oil pipelines and platforms.

The Nigerian press received the British offer as a declaration of war against rebel groups. The Daily Champion newspaper ran the headline "Battle Line! UK to Declare War on Delta Militants".

Mr Brown is under immense pressure on the domestic front to ease the soaring fuel costs, driven by the global spike in oil prices. Major unrest in the impoverished Niger Delta region has cut the country's capacity to pump oil by one-quarter in recent months, helping to drive oil prices to the record high of $145 per barrel.

However, Mr Brown's initiative appeared to catch the Foreign Office unawares. A spokesman insisted yesterday that there had been "no change in policy" but that "options" were being considered. Senior military sources also said they had been caught by surprise by the decision to offer military aid. There are no contingency plans for intervention in Nigeria that can be activated, they said, and any operation would have to be organised from scratch.

President Yar'Adua came to power a year ago after a controversial election win that was challenged in Nigeria's High Court and contested by independent observers. Despite campaign pledges to tackle endemic corruption, which has raised the country to the top of the global graft index and enriched an elite with illegal oil revenues, the President has made little progress. He has also failed in his pledge to address local grievances in the Delta and restore peace to the region.

A series of attacks on installations and the kidnapping of oil workers by the main militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), has cut Nigerian oil production by one-quarter. The group is demanding a greater share of oil revenues be given to local people as the Niger Delta is among the poorest regions in Africa, despite the immense oil wealth it produces. A spokesman for Mend, Jomo Gbomo, told The Independent that the UK offer was tantamount to a return to colonial policies of divide and rule: "They ought to know better than any other country [not] to involve themselves in any other area aside from development. They [the British] are getting frustrated and we will continue frustrating the oil-dependent markets until justice is offered." Asked if he feared that Nigeria would become the next Iraq or Afghanistan, he replied: "It will not get to that point except if there is foreign interference."

Mend offered to enter peace talks last year but withdrew after the government launched a secret trial against one of its leaders. Attempts to convene a summit have been complicated by the withdrawal of the United Nations envoy who was asked to oversee it, as well as the refusal of Mend to take part.

Any action in Nigeria would further stretch British forces. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of Defence Staff, warned the Government last month: "We are not structured or resourced to do two of these things [Iraq and Afghanistan] on this scale on an enduring basis, but we have been doing it on an enduring basis for years. Until we get to the stage when one of them comes down to small-scale, we will be stretched beyond the capability we have."

Defence sources say the only realistic option would be to send special forces along with specialised hi-tech equipment to combat the guerrilla campaign. However, two squadrons out of the four in the SAS are currently deployed abroad, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one is said to be on exercise. Units of the Special Boat Squadron are also busy in those countries with one contingent working alongside US forces in yet another hunt for Osama bin Laden.

The UK does, however, have special forces in Djibouti alongside other Nato countries in the American-run Horn of Africa task force involved in missions against Islamist militants; some of them can be switched from east to west Africa. It may also be possible to station a Royal Navy warship offshore.

Major General Julian Thompson, a former commander of the Royal Marines, said: "It would be utterly extraordinary to propose anything like a sizeable deployment of forces to Nigeria. Where are they going to come from? The MoD has not exactly got a box marked 'new troops' they can open up for something like this.

"It would be possible to send special forces in limited numbers to help the Nigerian military, but, with the current situation in Afghanistan they cannot be kept there for anything like a prolonged period."

Britain is one of the largest investors in Nigeria. About 4,000 Britons live in the west African country, many working for large companies, including the oil and gas companies Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group.



Photo: A Nigerian separatist rebel in the Niger Delta (independent.co.uk)



Graph credit: Independent Graphics/independent.co.uk

Source: The Independent - Browns African Misadventure

Hat tip peakoil.com
- - -

UK offers Nigeria "military experts providing military advice"

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered Nigeria help to train security forces in its main oil producing region and promised to support the establishment of a maritime training centre for forces operating in the Niger Delta after meeting Umaru Yar’Adua, the president of Nigeria, in London.

Source: Financial Times report by Alex Barker in London, July 17 2008:
UK offers Nigeria help to train security forces
- - -

UK seeks to deepen energy ties with Nigeria

Britain has offered to help Nigeria overhaul its energy sector as part of Gordon Brown’s attempts to encourage oil exporters to boost production to tame this year’s surge in oil prices.

Britain sees Nigeria, where attacks by militants and under-investment have cut production to 1.8m b/d from a capacity of roughly 2.5m b/d, as one of the few countries that could potentially provide a significant increase in output.

Source: Financial Times report by Matthew Green in Lagos, August 21 2008:
UK seeks to deepen energy ties with Nigeria

Libya sends relief load to Niger

May 27, 2008 Reuters report (via ReliefWeb) entitled 'Libya sends aid to drought-hit Niger':

TRIPOLI, May 27 (Reuters) - Libya on Tuesday sent 30 tonnes of humanitarian relief to drought-stricken Niger, one of several African states struggling to cope with a surge in global food prices, Libyan state media said on Tuesday.

Libya also sent a team of doctors and pharmacists to distribute the aid, which includes medicine, clothes and tents, and provide health care to the poor in the Sahelian country, one of the world's top producers of uranium.

Oil-exporting Libya is one of the main sources of aid to its neighbour Niger, an arid country on the southern fringe of the Sahara.

One in five children die before their fifth birthday in Niger, and aid agencies fear rising world prices for basic foods like rice could put decent nutrition beyond the reach of millions of people even if the next harvest is good.

The country suffered a humanitarian emergency in 2005 that threatened 3.5 million people with famine after drought and locusts the previous year wiped out crops in many villages.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi advocates solidarity among Africans in the fight against poverty to prevent what he sees as meddling in the continent by Western powers.

(Writing by Lamine Ghanmi; editing by William Maclean and Giles Elgood).
- - -

May 28, 2008 BBC (News report 09:39 GMT 10:39 UK) entitled 'Libya sends relief load to Niger':

Niger is a vast, arid country often stricken by drought

Libya has sent 30 tons of aid to Niger, one of several African countries struggling to cope with the global rise in food prices.

The aid included medical supplies, clothes, shoes and tents, Libya's state news agency Jana reported.

Medical teams and pharmacists are accompanying the aid to provide medical services and distribute relief.

Last month, aid agencies said thousands of people had left their homes in the south-east due to food shortages.

Niger is one of the world's least-developed nations and more than two-thirds of its people live below the poverty line and 82% rely on agriculture, according to the UN.

Child mortality rates are high, with an estimated one in five children dying before their fifth birthday.

A report in April by international aid groups and the government of Niger said 14,000 people had been displaced in the region of Maradi.

Most of them have fled to cities, with others moving across the border to Nigeria.

The population of one village, Pardakoye, has shrunk from 800 people to 24.

More than three million people were affected by a famine in 2005.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7423134.stm

Niger rebels say French military helping government

Feb 19, 2008, 17:16 GMT Reuters.com report - by Abdoulaye Massalatchi - entitled 'Niger rebels say French military helping government:
'
NIAMEY, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Niger's Tuareg rebels accused France of giving military support to President Mamadou Tandja's army, but a senior army officer on Tuesday denied that French troops were playing any direct role in the conflict.

The rebel Niger Justice Movement (MNJ), which has killed 50 soldiers and raided army bases and convoys over the last year in the uranium-rich Agadez region of northern Niger, said French officer instructors were in Agadez to train Niger's forces.

The French military was also giving equipment to the army, the MNJ said in a Feb. 18 statement on its Website, without spelling out what this consisted of.

"We condemn all interference by France in a conflict which is the business of the people of Niger," said the statement posted on the rebel Website www.m-n-j.blogspot.com.

"Any French military presence is considered illegal by the MNJ," the rebels added.

A senior Niger armed forces officer, who asked not to be named, told Reuters the government army was receiving training, equipment and logistics support from France under a bilateral military cooperation agreement.

But he denied the French military had any direct role in fighting the light-skinned nomadic desert rebels, who are demanding more autonomy for their region and a greater share of the mineral wealth, especially uranium, that it produces.

Niger is a major exporter of uranium which is used to fuel nuclear reactors.

Tandja's government refuses to recognise the MNJ, dismissing its fighters as "bandits" who traffick in arms and drugs.

"Who has ever seen French troops fighting alongside Niger troops? ... the MNJ is nothing more than a group of armed bandits and should be treated as such. We don't need a foreign army to do that," the government officer said.

The MNJ, which last year raided a French-operated uranium mine and has threatened an offensive against uranium industry targets, said the French military role in Niger recalled the situation in neighbouring Chad, another French colony.

Chadian rebels say France has used its planes and troops stationed in the landlocked oil-producing country to prop up President Idriss Deby and helped him beat off a rebel attack on the capital N'Djamena earlier this month.

Paris denies any direct combat role by its forces in Chad and says it is supporting Deby's "legitimately elected" rule.

The MNJ said French President Nicolas Sarkozy had promised when he took office last year to dismantle France's cozy past relationship with often corrupt and dictatorial leaders in its former colonies in Africa.

"On the contrary, there's a return to the old order," the Niger rebel group said. (Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

Source: http://africa.reuters.com/country/TD/news/usnL19912644.html

Niger rebels vow offensive against uranium industry

Jan 31, 2008 11:39am EST Reuters report by Abdoulaye Massalatchi:

NIAMEY, Jan 31 (Reuters) - A leader of Niger's Tuareg rebels promised on Thursday an all-out offensive against the uranium industry including attacks on foreign-run mines and mineral convoys.

Over the last 12 months, the Niger Justice Movement (MNJ) has attacked army convoys and bases, killing around 50 soldiers.

This has forced Niger's government to impose a state of alert in the north of the Sahelian country, a major producer of uranium which is used to fuel nuclear reactors.

"We are going to attack the uranium mines, including those belonging to Areva, halt the operation of the plants or the opening up of new sites, and target the road shipments to the sea," Tuareg leader Rhissa Ag Boula told French newspaper Le Nouvel Observateur.

Last year MNJ fighters attacked a northern mine site operated by French nuclear group Areva and also briefly abducted a Chinese uranium executive.

The rebels are demanding more autonomy and a greater share of wealth in their uranium-rich northern region.

A Niger government spokesman rejected the threat in comments to Radio France International. President Mamadou Tandja's administration refuses to recognise the light-skinned nomadic desert rebels, dismissing them as "armed bandits".

Ag Boula criticised the Niger government for "handing out uranium concessions like buns" to companies from France, Canada, Australia, India, South Africa and China.

China had obtained a major part of the new concessions and the Chinese "build mining cities, bringing their own workers with them". China was selling landmines, vehicles and tanks to the Niger government, Ag Boula said in the interview.

NO DIALOGUE

Both the government and the rebels have accused each other of targeting civilians, particularly through laying land mines.

"The army refuses to confront the MNJ, but kills civilians," Ag Boula said. He accused government forces of persecuting Tuareg civilians suspected of sympathising with the rebellion.

Ag Boula was a ringleader of a previous northern Tuareg rebellion in the 1990s. After a peace deal, he served as tourism minister before being sacked in 2004 when he was briefly arrested in connection with the murder of a local politician.

He said army operations in the vast, rugged region around Agadez had driven hundreds of civilians from outlying oasis towns and destroyed the desert tourism industry.

Ag Boula criticised the government for refusing to negotiate with the MNJ. "The worst thing is that there are no signs of an opening or dialogue," he said.

He denied suggestions the Tuareg-led MNJ had connections with Algeria-based Islamic extremists allied to al Qaeda. "We have no connections with any foreign group," he said.

"Fifty years after Niger's independence, Tuaregs no longer accept others running their affairs for them. We've had enough of being dominated."

(Writing by Pascal Fletcher; editing by Robert Woodward)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL31922133

NWT Updates Shareholders on Niger Uranium 2008 Exploration Program

Note to self. Copied these notes whilst browsing internet. I am filing them here for future reference, if needed.

NWT Updates Shareholders on Niger Uranium 2008 Exploration Program
Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:13pm EST

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS216164+10-Jan-2008+PRN20080110
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS216164+10-Jan-2008+PRN20080110

TORONTO, Jan. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - NWT Uranium Corp. (TSX-V: NWT;

OTCBB: NWURF) is pleased to update its shareholders regarding the activities
of Niger Uranium Corp., of which NWT is the largest shareholder.

Niger Uranium's 2007-2008 field program at Irhazer and In Gall commenced
in November, according to a quarterly filing issued in late December by the
company. Work will be completed in stages, with the first phase scheduled to
include 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) of diamond drilling to test prospective
targets located along structures that host existing uranium mines. The second
phase is designed to follow-up on earlier results and is scheduled to include
up to 24,600 feet (7,500 meters) of additional drilling.

Concurrent with the drill program, Niger Uranium plans to trench and
sample several targets to test for mineralization, geology and structure. In
addition, grids indicating historical drill sites will be re-established and,
where possible, will be tested by down-hole radiometrics.

"NWT is pleased with the aggressive program underway in Niger," said Marek
J. Kreczmer, President and CEO of NWT Uranium. "As Niger Uranium's largest
shareholder, we look forward to the further advancement of our investment."

NWT contributed the Irhazer and In Gall properties to the Niger Uranium
joint venture. The two properties have returned uranium values ranging from
0.22% U(3)O(8) to 1.0% U(3)O(8) from five surface rock samples collected from
outcrops, as reported in a press release on May 29, 2007, available on SEDAR
at www.sedar.com. These samples were submitted for re-analysis after they
exceeded the detection limits of uranium tests routinely used to analyze
samples from Niger. Producing mines and deposits in Niger typically grade from
0.1% to 0.42% U(3)O(8), with the highest grades being mined at greater depths.

ABOUT NWT URANIUM:

NWT Uranium Corp. (www.nwturanium.com) is an international resource
exploration company with an experienced, highly technical management team.
Since its inception, NWT has concentrated on the acquisition of properties
with potential uranium targets. NWT Uranium is listed on the NASD Bulletin
Board under the symbol "NWURF" and the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol
"NWT."

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This news release includes certain "forward looking statements" within the
meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization and
resources, exploration results, and future plans and objectives of the Company
are forward looking statements that involve various degrees of risk. The
following are important factors that could cause the Company's actual results
to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking
statements: changes in the worldwide price of mineral commodities, general
market conditions, risks inherent in mineral exploration, risks associated
with development, construction and mining operations, the uncertainty of
future profitability and the uncertainty of access to additional capital.

Potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature, there has been
insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource on any of the properties
referenced in this press release and it is uncertain if further exploration
will result in any such targets being delineated as a mineral resource. The
technical information which forms the basis for the disclosure regarding the
Irhazer and In Gall properties contained herein was prepared by Graham
Greenway, an independent consultant, who is qualified person within the
meaning of National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities
Administrators.

SOURCE NWT Uranium Corp.

Marek J. Kreczmer, M.Sc., P.Eng., President and CEO, NWT Uranium Corp., (866)
437-9551, info@nwturanium.com

China firm suspends Niger uranium activities - source / Niger rebels say to release Chinese uranium hostage

Via POTP - dated July 10, 2007:

Five largely related stories from today that update, most recently, yesterday's (updated originally to add the latest bulletin from Reuters.

From Reuters...

A Chinese mining company exploring for uranium in northern Niger has suspended its activities in the country after one of its executives was kidnapped last week, a military source said on Tuesday.

Zhang Guohua, an executive at China Nuclear International Uranium Corp. (Sino-U), was kidnapped on Friday close to Ingall, more than 1,000 km (600 miles) north of the capital, Niamey.

"At the company's request, all of its workers have been evacuated under military escort to Ingall, from where they will be taken to the regional capital, Agadez," the military source told Reuters, asking not to be named.

From Thomson Financial...

A Chinese company has shut down its uranium-prospecting operation in northern Niger, after an ultimatum from the Tuareg rebel movement there, Toureg sources said.

The China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corporation (CNEC) pulled out after receiving threats from the rebel Movement of Niger People for Justice (MNJ), said the source in Agaez, in the north of the country.

"All the Chinese have left the site and arrived at Ingall (100 km south of Agadez), with their prospecting equipment and a major military escort," said the source.

The CNEC pull-out comes after Tuaregs of the MNJ abducted a Chinese national last Friday in the Ingall region.

An MNJ spokesman said at the time that the action had been intended as a warning to Chinese companies operating with the Niger army.

"No foreigner will be safe so long as the army continues its repression," said an MNJ statement. It has called for an immediate end to mining in the north of the country.

In April, MNJ rebels attacked the biggest uranium project of French nuclear group Areva in Imoumaren, demanding better application of the economic aspects of the 1995 peace agreements that ended a Tuareg rebellion.

The MNJ says [that] peace will not return to the north of Niger without better integration of Tuaregs into the army, paramilitary corps and the local mining sector. Since February, it has carried out attacks on military targets in the area.

Also from Reuters...

Tuareg-led rebels in northern Niger on Tuesday released a Chinese uranium executive [that] they kidnapped four days ago, a military source in the West African country said.

The source, who asked not to be named, said [that] Zhang Guohua, an executive at China Nuclear International Uranium Corp. (Sino-U), was being handed over to the Red Cross, and could be back in the capital Niamey by Wednesday.

By Reuters' Abdoulaye Massalatchi (primary story)...

(An earlier version is also still available on AlertNet.)

Tuareg-led rebels in northern Niger on Tuesday released a Chinese uranium executive [whom] they kidnapped four days ago, while his company suspended its activities in the desert region.

The Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) said [that] Zhang Guohua, an executive at China Nuclear International Uranium Corp. (Sino-U), was free and waiting to be collected by the Red Cross.

He was taken close to the desert oasis of Ingall on Friday, more than 1,000 km (600 miles) from the capital, Niamey.

"There's no problem, he's free," MNJ leader Aghaly ag Alambo told Reuters by satellite phone from northern Niger. "He's been talking to his family. We're just waiting for the Red Cross."

Government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar confirmed [that] Zhang had been liberated, and said [that] he could be back in Niamey by Wednesday.

The MNJ kidnapped Zhang because it believed [that] his firm was helping to fund government arms purchases to suppress its uprising. It said at the time of the kidnapping [that] its action was meant as a warning, and that the hostage would not be harmed.

A military source said [that] Sino-U had suspended uranium-exploration work in the region, following the kidnap and rebel calls for foreign mining companies to withdraw expatriate staff.

"At the company's request, all of its workers have been evacuated under military escort to Ingall, from where they will be taken to the regional capital, Agadez," the source said.

Niger's government has granted around 70 mining exploration permits for its desert north, home to the world's fourth-biggest uranium-mining industry, and 100 more are under consideration. Sino-U is one of dozens of foreign firms operating in the area.

MORAL SUPPORT

The MNJ, made up largely of Tuareg and other nomadic tribes, has launched a series of attacks since February against military and mining interests in and around Agadez, scene of a full-scale rebellion in the early 1990s.

It says [that] the central government is neglecting the region, and wants local people to have greater control over its mineral resources, which also include iron ore, silver and platinum.

In its first public statement since the beginning of the MNJ campaign, Niger's army called on the population to remain calm, and said [that] it was committed to protecting the nation.

"We call on the people of Niger to lend moral support to the armed forces engaged on the ground in a conflict which threatens a hard-won peace and security," army spokesman Abdoulkarim Goukoye said in an address on national radio.

The MNJ accuses the government of using the proceeds from mining permits to buy two Russian-made Mi-24 attack helicopters to strike its positions, and says [that] the army has Chinese weapons which it is using in a brutal crackdown on civilians.

"The weapons that we seized in the recent attacks (on military outposts) showed that most of the arms [that] the government forces are using are Chinese-made," ag Alambo said.

Defence Ministry officials have declined to comment.

Pressure has been building on the president to hold talks with the leaders of the uprising. But the government refuses to recognise the MNJ, and has dismissed its attacks, in which at least 33 soldiers have been killed, as acts of common banditry.

From VOA...

A Chinese company has shut down its uranium-prospecting operation in northern Niger after threats from the Tuareg rebel group.

Military officials and sources close to the company say [that] the China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corporation halted operations after receiving threats from the rebel Niger Movement for Justice. The sources say [that] all of the company's workers have been evacuated with their prospecting equipment to Ingall, about 100 kilometers northeast of the capital, Niamey.

The rebel group kidnapped an executive of the company four days ago, but [on] Tuesday, it promised to release him to the Red Cross.

Niger is one of the world's leading producers of uranium.

The Niger Movement for Justice is made up of members of the Tuareg ethnic group and other tribes. It has carried out a series of attacks against government and foreign interests in the region, in recent months.

The group contends that Niger's government has failed to live up to a 1995 peace deal promising local residents greater control over the region's rich natural resources.

5000 soccer balls for Project Play Niger 2007

Great idea. Would love to see it extended to Sudan, DRC and N Uganda. Project Play was conceived by Mike Mitchell, based on his experiences while serving in the Peace Corps in Niger from 1983 to 1985.

Mike arrived in the town of Zinder with a love for the game of soccer and a duffel bag containing 8 balls. Accordingly, the balls were his ticket into the lives of the local children. Within a short time Mike became an integral part of the provincial club team L'Equipe Espoir (Team Hope), which eventually won the 1984 Nigerian Championship.

Project Play's goal of returning to Niger with an estimated five thousand soccer balls, will be the first fruit borne of Mike's dream to reconnect with the children of Africa and enhance global understanding through sport.

[Source: banner advert at http://www.niger1.com/index.html]

Farmer power the key to green advance

It is simply unacceptable to allow over 850 million people go to bed hungry in a world that produces more than enough food for all. Eco-farming helps poor.

Full story by Michel Pimbert via BBC online 23 Feb 2007.

Huge spend urged on African water

Arica's water systems need annual investments of about $20bn over the next two decades, a United Nations report has concluded.

The African Development Bank (ADB) says that only 3.8% of the continent's water resources are developed.

About 300 million Africans lack access to safe drinking water, and the ADB says money also needs to be spent on irrigation and hydropower.

Full story BBC 20 March 2006.

Dirty water 'kills 1.5m children'

More than 1.5m children under five die each year because they lack access to safe water and proper sanitation, says the United Nations children's agency.

In a report, Unicef says that despite some successes, a billion people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water from protected sources.

More than 1.2 billion people have gained access to safe water since 1990.

But sub-Saharan Africa remains a major area of concern, especially countries affected by conflict.

A Unicef deputy-director, Vanessa Tobin, gave the example of Niger, where only 13% of the population has access to toilets of an acceptable standard, or better.

She said it "certainly is a contributing factor in the cholera outbreaks" in Niger.

Full story BBC 28 Sep 2006.

DARFUR/CHAD/MDJT rebels: Armed assailants attack convoy in northern Niger

NIAMEY, Aug 11 (Reuters) - hat tip Coalition for Darfur:

One soldier was killed and another abducted in northern Niger when armed men attacked and robbed a goods convoy being escorted by the army near the desert town of Agadez, military sources said on Friday.

The region around the ancient trading town, some 1,700 km (1,000 miles) north of the capital Niamey, was the centre of an uprising by Tuareg nomads in the 1990s and remains notorious for banditry and smuggling.

Local radio, however, reported the assailants were rebels from neighbouring Chad. Military sources declined to speculate.

"We have begun a pursuit and we prefer to remain cautious about the nationality of the attackers," said one army source, who asked not to be identified.

The attackers seized five vehicles containing cigarettes bound for Libya, the main market for tobacco in the region.

The lawless expanse of northern Niger -- which borders Chad, Libya and Algeria -- has also become a haven in recent years for Algerian rebels.

N'Djamena signed a peace deal last year with the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT) rebel movement to end its uprising in northern Chad, which had spilled over the border into Niger.

Other rebel groups dedicated to toppling Chadian President Idriss Deby continue to operate in the country's east, using the Sudanese region of Darfur as an operating base.

These rebel groups launched a foiled assault on N'Djamena in April, which killed hundreds of people just weeks before polls which handed Deby a new five-year term.

Oxfam: Africa famine response 'too little, too late'

Reuters report by Andrew Cawthorne via Mail & Guardian 24 July 2006:

Food emergencies in Africa are occurring three times more often now than in the mid-1980s, but the global response to famine continues to be "too little, too late", the international aid agency Oxfam said on Monday.

Conflict, HIV/Aids and climate change are all exacerbating food shortages for sub-Saharan Africa's 750-million people, with innovative solutions and massive long-term support needed to break the cycle, the British-based group added in a new report.

"It will cost the world far less to make a major investment now in tackling root causes of hunger than continuing the current cycle of too little, too late that has been the reality of famine relief in Africa for nearly half a century," Oxfam Britain's director Barbara Stocking said.

Billions of dollars of aid have been pumped into sub-Saharan Africa in recent decades, and its problems have received unprecedented international attention of late from grassroots campaigners and world leaders like Britain's Tony Blair.

But despite that, a "myopic, short-term" focus has prevailed, with emergency food aid still dominating international action on Africa, rather than long-term support of agriculture, infrastructure and social safety nets, Oxfam said.

It cited this year's drought in East Africa, where up to 11-million people still require urgent assistance, and renewed food insecurity in Niger, where at least one-million people are vulnerable in coming months, as evidence of ongoing crisis.

A third of Africans are under-nourished, Oxfam said, while the number of food emergencies has nearly tripled in 20 years. Nearly half of Africans live on less than a dollar a day.

"MORALLY UNACCEPTABLE"

Conflicts cause more than half of food crises, Oxfam said, citing violence in north Uganda and Sudan's Darfur region.

"Darfur, where 3,4-million people are dependent on food aid, is a classic example of the devastating humanitarian emergency that conflict creates," it said.

The HIV/Aids epidemic is taking "a terrifying toll" on one of the continent's key resources for food production -- its people. Oxfam said a fifth of the agricultural workforce in Southern African countries will have died from HIV/Aids by 2020.

And climate change is "wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of small landholders and nomadic pastoralist", the agency added, citing research that 55-65 million more Africans could be at risk of hunger by the 2080s because of temperature rises.

"The story of nearly half a century of attempts at sophisticated and sustainable solutions to hunger in Africa is not a happy one," added the Oxfam report, "Causing Hunger".

As well as supporting long-term projects, Oxfam said real solutions to Africa's food crisis should include:
Buying aid from developing countries. "Most food aid is still imported, meaning it can take up to 5 months to deliver and cost up to 50% more than food purchased locally."
Money-based schemes such as food vouchers, cash-for-work programmes or direct cash transfers.
Increased foreign aid for agriculture, which in fact dropped 43% in the decade to 2002.
More local funds for agriculture, with governments honouring a 2003 African Union pledge to increase spending on the sector to 10% of budgets.

"For people to be hungry in Africa in the 21st century is neither inevitable nor morally acceptable," Oxfam said.

"The world's emergency response requires an overhaul ... the stop-start approach must give way to longer-term support."

Pictures of the $100 laptop: 1st working model of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

From May 23, 2006 blog entry by Pablo Halkyard at PSD blog - The World Bank Group:

Pictures from the unveiling of the first working prototype of the $100 Laptop at the Seven Countries Task Force today. Green became orange, and the hand-crank is gone. Compare with Intel's sub-$400 entry and AMD's $185 version.

Note, at the entry a techie commented: "Awesome. I want one. What is there to stop gringos from buying them all to have their recipes on the kitchen or to use as poolside or beach laptop?"

Click here to learn about One Laptop per Child and view pictures of original green prototype with hand crank.



Photo: 1st working model (OLPC) - taken at 11:45 AM on May 23, 2006; cameraphone upload by ShoZu - Uploaded to flickr by Pete Barr-Watson

Bird flu now found in Burkina Faso

On April 4, 2006 Keith noted Bird flu now found in Burkina Faso - the 5th African country to confirm the presence of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.

Niger begins cull weeks after finding bird flu

Niger began culling poultry on Sunday, more than a month after it first discovered an outbreak of deadly avian flu near its southern border with Nigeria.

Full story Reuters 9 Apr 2006.

Niger to block foreign press reporting food crisis - What's up with Mr Tandja?

Today, Reuters says Niger's government denied it had stripped the journalists of their accreditation, saying it had summoned them to explain that their coverage was one-sided and did not present the country's efforts to solve its problems:

"We did not expel the BBC. We summoned the team to say their report had caused shock and Niger is more than just recurring food shortages," said Fogue Aboubacar, secretary-general at the Culture, Arts and Communication Ministry.

"Niger is also about the authorities attempts to solve these problems and one must stop focusing on the negative side," he added. "That is what happened in 2005 and we are not going to tolerate it, especially as harvests have been good."

"Be it the BBC, CNN or any other media, we will not hand out more accreditation on the food situation," he said.

Full report.
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Committee to Protect Journalists

SPJ News Alert - excerpt: CPJ sources said that government officials insisted that the BBC team had been granted visas to cover bird flu and that they had exceeded their authorization. Government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar told Radio France Internationale today that any journalist was free to come to Niger but that "telling stories that are not true is another matter." CPJ attempts to get further comment from the government were unsuccessful.
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What's up with Mr Tandja?

Ali at The Salon writes What's up with Mr. Tandja? and asks "Does someone understand this better than I do?"

I have left a comment at Ali's post, providing a link to a post here at Niger Watch. Last year, I used this blog to monitor reports on Niger's alleged famine. Sorry, right now I am unable to spend more time blogging but if you are interested in getting an insight into why Niger is blocking the press from reporting on Niger's food market, please scroll through each month of archives here in the sidebar, particularly August and September of last year. There are not a great deal of posts within each month, just glancing through the titles will give you an idea of why Niger's Government says it is against the media "telling stories that are not true" - and make up your own mind as to why Niger is being proactive this year in its handling of the media. I'll try write more on this when able at a later date, right now I am upkeeping several blogs and it is time consuming tracking and reading daily news reports on the Sudan, Uganda, DRC, Ethiopia and Niger.

Niger halts BBC hunger coverage

Niger has withdrawn permission for a BBC team which found evidence of hunger in the country to continue to report on the humanitarian situation there, BBC reported 3 April 2006. Excerpt:

Officials said international and local media would not be allowed to do stories about the food situation as they did not want that subject touched. Hunger and malnutrition are recurrent problems in Niger, which is the poorest country in the world.

Last week the United Nations included Niger in a major fundraising appeal. Officials said they they did not want foreign or local media to report about food supplies or malnutrition. The officials also criticised aid agencies without naming names, claiming that some of the funds raised for Niger last year did not reach their destination.

LIBERIA-NIGERIA-SIERRA LEONE: Handcuffed Taylor deposited at war crimes court

IRIN report Mar 29, 2006 - excerpt:

UN peacekeepers delivered handcuffed former Liberian president Charles Taylor into the custody of a UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone on Wednesday where he will be the first former African head of state to face prosecution for war crimes before an international tribunal.

A UN helicopter brought Taylor from the Liberian capital Monrovia directly to the landing pad of the Special Court in Freetown where officials whisked him directly to his waiting cell.

Nigerian police captured Taylor, who is indicted on 17 counts of war crimes, on Tuesday after he disappeared from the mansion where he was living in exile in the south of the country.

Taylor was detained Tuesday night in Borno state in northeastern Nigeria, Information Minister Frank Nweke told reporters. Authorities immediately informed Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo who is on a visit to the United States and the Nigerian leader ordered Taylor's immediate deportation to Liberia.

"Taylor was received as soon as he landed and the UNMIL peacekeepers read him his rights and he was handcuffed by peacekeepers," Liberia's chief prosecutor, Tiaon Gongloe told reporters after Taylor's departure in a white UN helicopter.

A UN Security Council resolution late last year mandated UN peacekeepers in Liberia "to apprehend and detain former president Charles Taylor" in the event of his return to Liberian territory and depose him with the Special Court in Sierra Leone.

6 Niger soldiers up for mutiny

A military tribunal in Niger has convicted six soldiers for their role in a 2002 mutiny, but has acquitted 57 co-defendants, say legal sources.

Soldiers mutinied in Niamey on the night of August 4-5th 2002, in support of a 10-day mutiny by comrades demanding better pay and conditions hundreds of kilometres away in Diffa, near the border with Nigeria.

A military tribunal in Kollo, just outside Niamey, tried 63 soldiers for acts harmful to state security, insurrection and rebellion.

Full report (News 24 SA) 10 March 2006.

The 21st century's most explosive commodity will be . . . WATER

There's plenty of it to meet the world's needs but too much of our supply is in the wrong places says a report at thebusinessonline.com by Allister Heath 5 March 2006, copied here in full for future reference:

WHISKY is for drinking, water is for fighting over - or so Mark Twain once remarked. He was right. Water has played a central, albeit usually overlooked, role in conflicts throughout human history, far more so even than oil; and many of the wars of the 21st century will be fought over the clear, cool stuff.

During the past 50 years alone, there have been 507 conflicts pitting country against country, and 21 instances of actual hostilities, as a result of disagreements over water. All of which puts in perspective the row in the UK over last week's decision to allow water companies to impose metering to force water consumers to face the true costs of their water consumption - it even makes the looming drought and hosepipe bans in the South of England almost bearable in comparison.

Water historian Peter Gleick, director of worldwater.org and the author of a unique chronology of water wars, has discovered a huge history of conflicts and tensions over water resources, the use of water systems as weapons during war, and the targeting of water systems during conflicts. The earliest known example dates back to 3,000 BC. Well before the remarkably similar accounts of the Great Flood to be found in the Bible, ancient Sumerian legend tells the tale of the deity Ea, who punished humanity for its sins with a devastating six-day storm.

There have been hundreds more instances of water wars across the ages, involving just about everybody from Nebuchadnezzar to Louis XIV and famous military operations such as the Dam Busters during the second world war. In 1503, Leonardo da Vinci and Machievelli planned to divert the Arno River away from Pisa during hostilities between Pisa and Florence. Astonishingly, Arizona and California almost went to war in 1935 over the construction of the Parker Dam and diversions from the Colorado River.

In the late 1970s, Ethiopia's wish to build dams on the headwaters of the Blue Nile led to a furious reaction from Egypt. "The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water," said Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, the Egyptian president later assassinated. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian diplomat who became UN secretary-general, said in 1988: "The next war in our region will be over the waters of the Nile, not politics."

During the past 15 years, there have been armed conflicts over water in Bangladesh, Tadjikistan, Malaysia, Yugoslavia, Angloal, East Timor, Namibia, Bostwana, Zambia, Ecuador and Peru. Several terrorist groups have threatened to poison water systems and water distribution has been regularly targeted in Iraq.

The fundamental problem is that access rights to water are often badly defined. Unlike with other commodities, the institutions of modern capitalism property rights, private companies, free market prices - have rarely been applied to water, and especially not to water flows that cross different countries. The result is that countries all too often use non-commercial methods to arrange their water supplies - such as finders-keepers, war or diplomatic deals.

Individual water molecules cannot be owned or subjected to property rights. But rules and agreements about who can use water and in what way, or who can have access to or the right to divert rivers, lakes or underground reserves, need to be found. And the best rules for all goods and services, including the most precious of commodities, are the rules of the market. Water and river rights could easily be traded.

At the moment, however, rational ways of allocating water are sorely missing. "Few agreements have been reached about how the water should be shared; most of those agreements are seen as un-just: upstream countries believe they should control the flow of the rivers, taking what they like, if they can get away with it. Downstream, where the states are often more advanced and militarily stronger ,they have always challenged this assumption, like Egypt and Israel. It is a recipe for confrontation," according to Adel Darwish, co-author of Water Wars: Coming Conflicts in the Middle East with John Bulloch.

Countries such as Egypt, Hungary, Botswana, Cambodia and Syria all derive more than 75% of their water from rivers that flow though other countries first. In the same way that oil and gas pipelines that go through hostile countries can be siphoned off or blown up to cut supplies to rival countries, water flows can be diverted with devastating effect.

"Particularly tricky are cases where one river, or river system, provides water to many nations, some of which may be steadfast political or ideological opponents. But there can be conflicts even between countries with otherwise excellent relations if they have the same watercourse as their principal source of water supply. If one country starts emptying the river, less will be left over for the countries downstream," says Frederik Segerfeldt, senior adviser to the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.

At last count, there were 263 river basins shared by two or more countries and these were home to roughly 40% of the global population, according to Unesco. In most cases, the institutions needed to regulate how water resources should be used are either weak or missing altogether.

One particular area of contention is the Jordan River basin, which is divided between Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. Its supply of water is critical to Palestine, Israel and Jordan, and very important to Lebanon and Syria. The problem, each time, is who owns the water, how the water should be shared out between different countries and under what conditions.

Partly as a result, water has also played a critical but much under-reported role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other wars in the region. The six-day war, which pitted Syria, Jordan and Egypt against Israel, had partly to do with a disagreement over water. One of the reasons why Israel has been reluctant to pull out of the Golan Heights and the West Bank is because it feared losing control of water flows and handing over control of them to hostile forces.

The absence of proper property rights in water also fuels tensions within countries, pitting town against town or region against region. There is a growing number of disagreements about who can or cannot use water from a particular source in the US. "From Montana to Michigan, from septic systems to centre-pivots, we wage war over water - its cleanliness, its availability, its highest use, its commodification, its spiritual essence. And as history proceeds from the settling of the prairies to the sprawling of suburbs, the struggles are becoming increasingly intense," says Douglas Clement of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

The answer, many economists believe, is to move towards a system of international tradeable water rights, recognised by the courts. Companies could buy and sell rights to water use, both within countries and internationally; all subsidised water for farmers and industry would be halted and all consumers would pay competitive prices, with the poor looked after. Water companies would be broken up and privatised; government-imposed barriers to competition would be lifted. Polluters would be faced with strict liability rules and would have to pay for cleaning up rivers, lakes or underground reserves.

The introduction of market forces would be especially positive for poor countries. Even in areas of the world without water wars, a horrendously large number of people are short of good quality, clean, drinking water and sanitation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that more than 2bn people are affected by water shortages in more than 40 countries: 1.1bn do not have enough drinking water and 2.4bn have no provision for sanitation. This has led to disease, lack of food security and much conflict. An estimated 25,000 people are still dying every day from malnutrition and 6,000 people, mostly children under the age of five, are dying from water-related diseases, according to the UN. This is a tragedy in urgent need of attention from the world, especially rich countries. But despite repeated statements of intent from international bodies such as the UN, little has been done.

So why so many conflicts and so much misery? Taking a global perspective, the problem is not that there this is too little water; in fact water is extraordinarily plentiful, a perfectly renewable resource that can be used over and over again. Instead, the challenge is getting the water to the right places and the right people; the issue is one of the misallocation of a scarce resource and is thus economic and political in nature, not physical or scientific.

A physical water shortage is mainly confined to countries of the Arab world, a few countries or regions in south and south-east Asia and parts of Australia. But there is economic water scarcity in much of the developing world. "The problem is not the amount of water available but the inability to produce and distribute safe water," says Segerfeldt, author of Water for Sale, published by the Cato Institute in Washington.

About two-thirds of the earth's surface is made up of water; if one strips out sea water, which of course can quite easily be turned into drinking water with the help of desalination plants, one is still left with 2.3m litres per person.

There is also plenty of rain: each year, 113,000 cubic kilometres showers down on the earth. Much of it evaporates but we are left with 19,000 litres a day per person. The global economy consumes only about 1,300 litres per person a day, 6.8% of the daily rainfall. The United Nations does the sums differently and finds that we use about 8% of the available water every year - but of course, unlike oil, which can only be used once, this water can endlessly be recycled.

Moving control of water distribution and sanitation services in developing countries out of the public sector and into the hands of private companies and a competitive market is the only realistic way to ensure that more people have access to clean and safe water, many economists believe.

"Water crises need not occur if individuals are allowed to respond to scarcity through market processes," says the Political Economy Research Center, an environmental think-tank in Montana. Forecasts of imminent natural resource shortages are often wrong because they ignore the impact of market forces on supply and demand, say Terry Anderson and Pamela Snyder, economists at the centre.

Higher prices induce suppliers to find new sources of supply and users to conserve and search for substitutes - and it would be the same for water were it subject to market forces globally. If governments send the wrong signals to suppliers and users by subsidising water storage and delivery, exponential growth in consumption will inevitably run into environmental and fiscal constraints. But if progress towards greater reliance on markets continues, water supplies and efficiency will increase as users trade with one another, and consumption will be tamed by higher prices. But numerous charities and lobby groups disagree.

They fear that the poor will not be able to afford water in a free market and claim that because it is essential to human life it should be free. But food, which is also a crucial requirement, is not free, and those countries that have tried going down that road have suffered catastrophe. Worst of all, the public sector is already failing to supply poor people with water: 22 people around the world are dying every minute because they are unable to get enough clean water from state-owned distributors.

By contrast, the overwhelming evidence from those countries or cities that have experimented with privatisation is that it has been a great success. The cost of obtaining water actually falls when the poor are connected to a water network: in Laos, water from street salesmen costs 136 times more than water from the official network; in Indonesia, the difference is as much as 489 times.

Access to clean water has increased following privatisation in every poor country that has tried it properly. In Tunja, Colombia, access rose by 10% following privatisation; in Gabon the figure was almost 15%. Cartagena, Colombia, posted access increases of 26%, Conakry, Guinea, of 24% and in La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia, of 10%. In Chile, 99% of urban residents, as well as 94% of rural residents, are now supplied with water all day round, which contrasts favourably with pre-privatisation figures of 63% and 27% respectively. Corrientes, Argentina, and Cote d'Ivoire saw increases of almost 15%.

Mischa Balen, a former researcher for UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks, is the author of a pro-privatisation book to be published on World Water Day on 22 March by the Globalisation Institute. "Government provision in water has overseen millions of deaths through lack of sanitation and unsafe water. Bringing in private sector expertise and investment is needed, both to meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals, but to actively contribute towards social justice the world over. In the vast majority of cases, where the private sector has been called upon, it has delivered the goods - even in cases decried by critics as 'failures'," Balen argues.

While the UK water industry is no poster child for privatisation, it has nevertheless shown the potential of harnessing market forces. The 1990 privatisation of the industry was in fact limited and the market remains highly regulated. The industry is not free to set the prices it wants and competition is restricted. Anyone who lives in the UK will have plenty of anecdotes about the incompetence or poor service of their local water company.

But the industry has successfully invested about £50bn since privatisation and water prices have gone up by less than inflation. Leaks, which still remain high, are down 30% and will fall further over the next four years. Instead of being able to concentrate on the leaks, the industry was forced by European Union directives to improve water purity first, to levels that some analysts believe were unnecessarily high.

The move to allow companies to impose metering on their customers and hence to enable them to charge for water usages, rather than merely a flat fee, is expected to cut water consumption by 5% to 15% – and for many households in the South of England, bills have fallen after meters were introduced. But meters alone are not enough. "The issue is not a lack of water meters per se, but a lack of true market prices for water. We should treat water the same as any other good or service traded in our economy. When water becomes more scarce, a rising price acts as a signal to both consumers and companies that they need to modify their behaviour," says Kendra Okonski, of the International Policy Network.

As economist Terry Anderson once put it, when water is cheaper than dirt, it will be treated that way - and that is the great problem with water in the world today. Unless it is priced rationally and managed by markets, countries will continue to go to war over it and the poor continue to die from a lack of it.