NIGER:
France promises $11 m for regulating Niger river flow
NIAMEY, 23 October (IRIN) - President Jacques Chirac of France has
announced 10 million euros (about US $11 million) of French aid for a
project to improve the management of water resources in the Niger river
basin at the start of a four-day visit to West Africa.
Chirac said in a speech on Wednesday night, shortly after his arrival
in Niamey, the capital of Niger, that France was also willing to host a
donors meeting to raise more money for managing water resources in the
Niger basin.
Chirac said France planned to be "a driving force" in international
efforts to develop the Niger river, on which the lives of several million
Africans depend.
The Niger rises in the Fouta Djallon hills of northern Guinea and flows
north through Mali to the southern edge of the Sahara desert, before
swinging south through Niger and Nigeria to empty into the Gulf of
Guinea.
Water levels in the river are exceptionally high at present following
heavy rains throughout the Sahel. However, chronic drought in the region
over the past 30 years has reduced the average volume of water in the
river by a third.
This has led to a lowering of the water table in nearby croplands and
disrupted the free flow of the 4,200 km long river, creating vast pools
covered by water hyacinths. These reduce the oxygen content of the
water, limiting the fauna and flora that can live there. During the severe
droughts of 1985 and 1990, the Niger virtually stopped flowing in
Niamey.
The countries through which the river passes have formed the Niger
Basin Authority to improve their management of the water resources which it
provides. Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad and Cameroon are
also members of the organisation, which is based in Niamey.
Niger's Minister of the Environment and Water Resources, Adamou Namata,
said his government had already begun to build dykes to regulate the
speed of water flow in the river bed and encourage a rise in the water
table on each bank.
On Thursday, Chirac was due to visit rural development projects at
Tahoua, a town 350 km of Niamey, before flying on to Mali on Friday.
Niger and Mali are both former French colonies and are among the
poorest countries in the world. Both are heavily dependent on subsistence
agriculture and have been hard hit by an increasingly dry climate and the
southward march of the Sahara desert.
Government crackdown on media raises international protest
ABIDJAN, 14 October (IRIN) - The government of Niger has launched a
crackdown on independent newspapers and radio stations, prompting cries of
alarm from international media watchdog organisations.
Although the vast desert state is one of Africa's poorest countries and
ethnic tensions simmer just below the surface, it has been a
functioning democracy since President Mamadou Tandja came to power in elections
four years ago that were widely acclaimed as free and fair.
But over the past month, his government has closed down 15 private
radio stations and arrested the editors of two weekly newspapers.
Both men have since been released, but the Accra-based Media Foundation
for West Africa (MFWA) urged the government on Tuesday to demonstrate
greater tolerance.
"Democracy is about contesting opinions - so long as they do not breach
the limits of freedom enshrined in the constitution, people should be
free to air their views," Gilbert Tietaah, the research and publications
officer for MFWA told IRIN.
"It is not right for the authorities to determine or decide what people
ought to know, listen to or say and when they should do so," he said,
adding that "truth was not a preserve of those in power or authority".
The crackdown began with the arrest of Ibrahim Souley, editor of the
weekly newspaper L'Enqueteur, on September 13, after he ran an article
which accused the government of helping to enrich businessman Djibo Zakou
through the irregular award of lucrative contracts.
The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) said
Zakou was from western Niger and L'Enqueteur had reported that his success
in winning contracts had led to resentment among businessmen from the
east.
On Monday Souley was given a one-year suspended prison sentence for
"inciting ethnic hatred" and was banned from living in the capital Niamey
for three months. RSF urged the authorities to overturn his conviction
and allow him to resume working normally.
"Of course, we are happy that this journalist has been released,"Robert
Ménard, the secretary general of RSF said. "But we don't understand on
what grounds the court has forbidden him to stay in Niamey for three
months. This decision is senseless."
The next move came on 25 September, the government suddenly shut down
down 15 of Niger's more than 50 local radio stations, saying their
licences had been improperly awarded.
The Media Foundation of West Africa suggested that the real reason for
their closure was the fact that these stations had allowed sharp
criticism of the government to be aired in press reviews, talk shows and
panel programmes. In particular, it said, the offending stations had
broadcast criticism of the government by Tuareg nomads, who have launched a
series of rebellions in the north of the country.
The foundation said in a statement that a few days after they were shut
down, Tandja warned Niger's remaining independent radio stations
against broadcasting any programmes "liable to disturb the social peace and
public order."
Several years of conflict between the government and Tuareg communities
of northern Niger finally ended with the brokering of a peace accord in
1995.
However, Tietaah said that in recent talk show and discussion
programmes, some former rebel elements had been critical of the government's
commitment to the terms of the agreement.
"We are however encouraging the government and public authorities,
including the executive and the judiciary demonstrate tolerance to critical
opinions or views," he told IRIN.
The latest incident occured on Saturday when Moussa Tchangari, the
managing editor of the weekly newspaper Alternative was arrested and
accused of inciting last week's student riots in Niamey. Human rights
activists said he was released without charge on Monday.
Hundreds of students took to the streets of the capital on 7 October,
barricading main roads and blocking access to Niger's only university.
They also set fire on car tyres to demand improved housing and living
conditions.
Niger, West Africa's largest country, in 2002 ranked 172 out of 173 on
the UNDP index of human development, second only to Sierra Leone.
Liberia was not included in the table.