NIAMEY (AFP) — Defence ministry officials in Niger on Saturday reported three soldiers wounded and four missing after Tuareg rebels attacked a civilian convoy escorted by the military.
Rebels from the Tuareg group, the Movement of the People of Niger for Justice (MNJ), claimed they had killed 15 soldiers and captured 4 others in Friday's attack.
It took place on the road between Agadez, the regional capital of the northern region of the same name, and Arlit further to the north.
They said they had destroyed three military vehicles and seized another, but denied having attacked civilians.
The clashes follow a brief lull in an uprising that began earlier this year by the MNJ in the uranium-rich deserts of northern Niger.
The movement wants greater inclusion of Tuaregs in the country's army, civil service and the local mining sector.
But the government refuses all negotiations with the group, whose chiefs it brands "armed bandits."
The rebels claimed last month to have killed some 30 soldiers and destroyed two army vehicles in a dawn raid on Touara in the north on October 25, but those assertions were never confirmed by authorities.
The rebels continue to hold some 30 soldiers out of the 72 they captured during a June raid.
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