Niger rebels kidnap Chinese uranium worker

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

NIAMEY, July 7 (Reuters) Tuareg-led rebels in northern Niger have kidnapped a Chinese uranium executive and are demanding his company stop its activities in the desert region, a rebel spokesman and a government source said today.

Zhang Guohua, an executive at Chinese uranium company Sino-U, was kidnapped yesterday close to the town of Ingall, more than 1,000 km (620 miles) north of the capital Niamey, a source close to the mines minstry said.

''This region has been declared a war zone by the government and in this situation we cannot allow the Chinese to continue extracting natural resources while civilians are being killed,'' Seydou Kaocen Maiga, a Paris-based spokesman for the rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ), told Reuters.

''We sent people to tell them that we did not want the Chinese to continue working while there is a conflict ... but they refused to stop so this employee was taken,'' he said.

Maiga said the kidnapping was meant as a warning and that the rebels did not intend to harm Zhang. He said no ransom demand would be made but added that there had not been any direct contact with Zhang's company since the incident.

''We learnt from Chinese diplomats that Mr Zhang Guohua was taken at around 2:30 pm in the area around Ingall but we do not have any other precise information,'' the ministry source said.

The MNJ, made up largely of light-skinned Tuareg and other nomadic tribes, has led a campaign of attacks against government and mining interests in Niger's mineral-rich north, home to the world's fourth biggest uranium mining industry.

It says 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, platinum and titanium. Foreign oil firms are also prospecting for crude.

The group, which accuses government forces of randomly arresting and killing civilians, has killed at least 33 soldiers since February, and is holding dozens more hostage after capturing them in its boldest attack a fortnight ago.

This is the first time it has taken a civilian hostage.

REUTERS SV RK1630

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