NIAMEY (AFP) — Niger police arrested a journalist working for Radio France International (RFI) and a radio station that gives airtime to Tuareg rebels, a reporter said Friday.
At least eight plain clothes police took away Moussa Kaka late Thursday from the offices of the private Saraouniya radio station which he manages, journalist Abdourahamane Hassane told AFP.
It was unclear what charges Kaka had been arrested on, although Hassane added that police had also searched Kaka's home.
Saraouniya is the Niger radio station that has given most airtime to Agali Alambo, head of the Movement of Niger People for Justice (MNJ), a Tuareg rebel group that has claimed many attacks on military targets in the north of the country.
Kaka said in July that he had been threatened with death by the head of the army, General Moumouni Boureima.
Authorities then banned RFI broadcasting on FM for a month for reporting what they called "mendacious information" about the NMJ.
RFI's journalist union and press freedom watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) called on authorities on Friday to free Kaka.
The MNJ has stepped up attacks in the northern Agadez region in recent months. It wants Tuaregs, a nomadic Berber people, to be included in the army and to benefit from uranium mining in the region.
For centuries Tuareg tribes have roamed the southern Sahara desert in Mali and Niger, as well as in north African neighbours Libya and Algeria.
Tuareg rebels have also carried out attacks in Mali, and in some cases the rebels appear to be linked.
