International lending organisations have temporarily halted the disbursement of $40-million to Niger,
blaming an army mutiny in the impoverished African nation for the suspension of aid, the trade minister has been quoted as saying.
In a report broadcast late on Thursday on Niger’s state-run television, Trade Minister Seini Oumarou is quoted as saying that the ”momentary suspension” of the aid disbursement is just one of the ”negative consequences” for Niger’s economy of the soldiers’
mutiny.
Rank and file soldiers in the southeastern town of Diffa rose up over pay and working conditions on July 30, taking local officials hostage.
Niamey dispatched troops to the region to put down the rebellion and forced the mutineers to flee.
A week after the Diffa mutiny, soldiers rebelled in the capital Niamey, this time against President Mamadou Tandja. The protest against the president, the first by the military since he came to power in 2000, was quickly crushed.
A state television reporter said that Oumarou had announced the suspension of the funds during a rally in the Tillabery region, west of Niamey, where he has been holding public meetings to give the government’s point of view on the reasons behind the Diffa mutiny.
Similar meetings are being held in other regions of the largely desert country to give the government’s side of the mutiny.
The mutinous soldiers have said they had risen up to press for better working conditions. The average daily income in the former French colony is about half a dollar and soldiers are paid about $35 per month.
According to an official toll, fighting between the mutineers and government troops sent to crush their rebellion cost two lives and left two people injured. – Sapa-AFP