NIAMEY - A French journalist held for a month in Niger for alleged intelligence with Tuareg rebels has been expelled from the country, an official said yesterday.
Francois Bergeron "was released, the order for his expulsion was signed yesterday and he had to leave Niger the same day," the official said, giving no further details.
Since August Niger has barred foreign journalists and others from the north of the country, officially for security reasons, following new unrest among Tuaregs there.
The local head of the French nuclear group Areva, which mines uranium in the region, was expelled in July after being accused of funding a rebel group, the Movement of the People of Niger for Justice (MNJ).
In September the correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI) in Niger, Moussa Kaka, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to undermine state security.
Niger’s consul in Togo, businessman Aboubacar Karda, faces similar charges.
Kaka, who also heads local radio station Saraouniya and is correspondent in Niger for rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), is alleged to have had telephone conversations with MNJ leaders on their activities and their ties with rebels in neighbouring Mali.
The MNJ has disavowed a peace deal signed in 1995 between the government and Tuareg leaders.
It accuses the government of failing to respect aspects of that agreement, notably regional development and giving them a bigger stake in revenue from uranium mined in the north of the country.
Rights groups accuse Niamey of cracking down on attempts to portray the scale of unrest in the north, which it alleges is due to banditry.