Niger opens Tuareg rebels talks

BBC News/Tuareg on camels (file)
The Tuaregs live in the Sahara and Sahel regions of North Africa

The government of Niger has opened ground-breaking talks in Libya's capital, Tripoli, with Tuareg rebels of the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ).

Niger has previously refused to negotiate with the rebels, whom it labelled as bandits and drug-smugglers.

Niger is being represented by the Interior Minister Albedi Abouba.

The talks follow last month's visit to Niger by the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and the release by the rebels of some government troops.

Both sides opened the discussions by telling Col Gaddafi they were committed to peace in the West African state, Libya's official Jana news agency reported on Tuesday.

Uranium revenues

"Everyone present spoke of their serious commitment and will to reach a peace deal," Niger's interior minister was quoted as saying.

Aghali Alambo, leader of the MNJ, spoke of the "commitment of his group and other groups for a definitive peace in Niger," Jana reported.

The BBC's Idy Baraou in Niger says the country's main rebel group wants a greater share of revenues from the uranium mines in the north of the former French colony.

The movement also wants the expanding mines to be curtailed so they do not encroach on agricultural areas, already under threat from increased desertification.

The Tuaregs, a historically nomadic people living in the Sahara and Sahel regions of North Africa, have had militant groups in Mali and Niger engaged in sporadic armed struggles for several decades.

In neighbouring Mali, hundreds of Tuareg rebels laid down their arms in February, breathing new life into a stalled peace process.