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September 10, 2007

Stranger than fiction

Well, The Yellowcake Conspiracy (an African spy thriller for 11 to 14 year-old boys) has launched. This nice man enjoyed reading it, and I hope that others will too.

For the launch event, I had proposed to Andersen Press that we convert a Soho basement bar into an African uranium mine. Invites would be radioactivity stickers, and head-torches would be distributed to guests on entrance (only two of many ideas I floated). The publisher responded to these ideas very graciously, beginning with the words 'We don't want to dampen your enthusiasm, but...'

Anyway, the book is out now. If you live in the UK (and if the Random House distribution machine has worked) you should be able to get it in your local bookshop. Otherwise it is available on Amazon.

The Yellowcake Conspiracy is about a group of malcontent Tuareg fighters mounting a 'second rebellion' in Niger under the leadership of a man known only as 'the Teacher' (the first rebellion ended back in 1995). They intimidate workers at a uranium mine in the north of the country, and exploit uranium in their bid for political power. Despite issuing from tiny towns in the Sahara desert, these second-wave rebels are extremely savvy in their use of technology, using the internet to communicate with each other and with the outside world.

I finished writing the book in November last year (although it has only now been published), stressing in the foreword that the story is fiction. But an email from France this morning has alerted me to current events in Niger, which seem to be mirroring fiction to an uncanny degree.

In February of this year (after twelve years of tenuous peace) the Second Rebellion started in the north of Niger. A group of malcontent Tuareg fighters (now thought to number over 2000) has formed the Niger Movement for Justice under the leadership of folk hero Aghaly Ag Alambo. They have mounted attacks on the Niger military and on various foreign economic interests, including the uranium mines. Despite issuing from tiny towns in the Sahara desert, the rebels are extremely savvy in their use of technology, using the internet to communicate with each other and with the outside world. They even have a blog, which is updated three to ten times each week (if only we were all so assiduous in posting new material).

In my first children's book Sophie and the Albino Camel, the baddie Moussa ag Litni happens to be a Tuareg. He could just as well have been a different ethnicity - Tuaregs certainly do not have a monopoly on banditry in the Sahel. As for the Tuaregs who make up the Niger Movement for Justice, are they terrorists or freedom fighters? The line is a fine one, as explained in Sam Urquhart's excellent article for Dissident Voice, Fake Terror and Instability in North Africa.

Urquhart believes that some of the Tuareg grievances are legitimate.

"Uranium dust from foreign owned mines, such as that run by the French group Areva, has dispersed across huge areas of Tuareg grazing lands that lie downwind from them. Efforts by local people and NGOs to monitor the environmental and health effects of the mining have been obstructed and prevented by the government in Niamey, which fears the withdrawal of investment in the mines, with the collusion of the French. As a result, local people continue to drink water poisoned by the mines and graze their animals on contaminated lands. At present, with the uranium sector undergoing an expansion in Niger, Tuareg concerns are rising, feeding anti-government sentiment. 30 new projects are slated for exploration and development, with Chinese, Indian and Canadian firms leading the way. Tuaregs know that they will suffer the consequences of these projects and receive few of the benefits."

In the midst of this Second Tuareg Rebellion, please pray for Niger. Pray that the Niger government would respond wisely to the uprising and that civilian casualties would be minimal. Tuareg dissatisfaction in the north of the country has never been properly addressed. Here's hoping it gets properly addressed now.

Posted by sahelsteve at September 10, 2007 01:00 PM