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NIAMEY - Suspected Tuareg rebels in Niger attacked the airport of the Saharan town of Agadez today in one of their boldest raids this year, challenging the authority of the central government, military sources and residents said.
"Armed men attacked Agadez from the airport side, there has been firing with heavy weapons," one military source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
The gunfire later subsided. There was no immediate word from the authorities about casualties or damage.
Residents confirmed the firing in the town, which is located 1000km north of the capital Niamey and is the gateway to Niger's remote desert region where foreign companies are exploring for uranium and oil.
Niger is the world's third largest uranium producer. Its north has seen an upsurge in attacks this year by Tuareg fighters who complain of neglect by the central government.
"We heard firing from Kalashnikovs and also some rounds fired by heavy weapons," one resident said. He declined to be named and said people had remained in their homes.
The military sources said the raiders, who had vehicles, were believed to be members of a Tuareg rebel group calling itself the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ), which has attacked military posts and a uranium mine this year.
A week ago, the governor of Agadez banned travel between northern towns without military escort following a rise in attacks by the nomadic rebels.
Fighters from numerous light-skinned ethnic Tuareg, Arab and Toubou groups staged an uprising in the 1990s in northern Niger demanding more autonomy from the black-dominated government.
Most groups accepted peace deals in 1995 but insecurity remains, with frequent acts of banditry, carjacking and kidnapping by former rebels who say they are still marginalised.
The MNJ, which has demanded that income from natural resources be more fairly shared out, was blamed for an attack in April on a uranium mine operated by a subsidiary of French mining group AREVA. One soldier was killed.
Members of the group, which also claimed responsibility for killing three Niger soldiers in February, took part last month in a cross-border assault on a gendarmerie post in the Malian town of Tin-Za, deep in the Sahara near the Algerian border.
The attacks have raised fears of a resurgent rebellion.
Niger's government refuses to recognise the MNJ and denies talk of a fresh Tuareg rebellion, dismissing the fighters as bandits and drug-traffickers.
But it has been forced to send army reinforcements to the north and last month approved more than US$60 million ($80.50 million) in extra budget funds to confront the attacks.
Despite its mineral riches, which besides uranium include iron ore, coal, copper, silver, platinum, titanium and lithium, Niger was listed bottom of a 2006 UN development index ranking countries by quality of life.
High levels of unemployment and a young population fuel resentment in the north, where trafficking cigarettes or smuggling migrants trying to get to Europe has become an industry of its own.
- REUTERS
