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In Niger, a war for what’s beneath the desert

Posted on 21st December 2008 by Benno Hansen

A battle is unfolding on the stark mountains and scalloped dunes of northern Niger between a band of Tuareg nomads, who claim the riches beneath their homeland are being taken by a government that gives them little in return, and an army that calls the fighters drug traffickers and bandits.

…new screenwriter badly needed… this plot won’t make another news block buster!

Niger’s northern desert caps one of the world’s largest deposits of uranium, and demand for it has surged as global warming has increased interest in nuclear power. Growing economies like China and India are scouring the globe for the crumbly ore known as yellowcake. A French mining company is building the world’s largest uranium mine in northern Niger, and a Chinese state company is building another mine nearby.

Uranium could infuse Niger with enough cash to catapult it out of the kind of poverty that causes one in five children here to die before their fifth birthday.

Or it could end in a calamitous war that leaves Niger more destitute than ever. Mineral wealth has fueled conflict across Africa for decades, a series of bloody, smash-and-grab rebellions that shattered nations. The misery wrought has left many Africans to conclude that mineral wealth is a curse.

[…]

The hardships of global warming and desertification, which eats away grazing land, further impoverished the Tuareg, forcing many to abandon herding. Yet as its fertility degraded, their land became increasingly sought after as the global price of uranium rose steadily. This paradox would prove explosive.

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A book and a blog about natural resources and conflict by Benno Hansen, Journalist, M.Sc (@bennohansen). Ecology, geopolitics and brutal plunder.

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ecowar_bhansen Benno Hansen @ecowar_bhansen ·
1 Aug

http://ecowar.eu/II/2022/07/25/er-taiwan-det-naeste-ukraine/
#Taiwan #China #fishing #sand

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ecowar_bhansen Benno Hansen @ecowar_bhansen ·
29 Jul

“We have a primary responsibility towards Congolese taxpayers who, for the most part, live in conditions of extreme precariousness and poverty, and aspire to a socio-economic wellbeing that oil exploitation is likely to provide for them” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/23/democratic-republic-of-congo-auction-oil-gas-permits-endangered-gorilla-habitat-aoe

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ecowar_bhansen Benno Hansen @ecowar_bhansen ·
26 Jul

“Climate change kills: it kills people, as we’ve seen; it also kills our ecosystem, our biodiversity, and it also destroys the things we as a society hold dear – our houses, our businesses, our livestock.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/25/wildfires-continue-to-burn-across-france-and-spain?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco

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ecowar_bhansen Benno Hansen @ecowar_bhansen ·
14 Jul

“No country has ever been held hostage to access to the sun. No country has ever been held hostage to access to the wind. They have not ever been weaponised, nor will they be” 

https://reneweconomy.com.au/us-energy-secretary-says-switch-to-wind-and-solar-could-be-greatest-peace-plan-of-all/

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ecowar_bhansen Benno Hansen @ecowar_bhansen ·
27 Jun

BBC News - Tracking where Russia is taking Ukraine's stolen grain
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/61790625

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