Niger commemorates 25th anniversary of national concord day
Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Niger Friday celebrated the national concord day marking the 25th anniversary of the signing of the peace deals between the armed groups and the Nigerien government.
The deals ended the Touareg rebellion in the North of the country, the Nigerien news agency (ANP) reported.
ANP said it was on 24 April 1995 that Niger signed a peace deal between the government and the Organization for Armed Resistance (ORA), a Touareg movement operating in the north of the country.
The then Nigerien government signed additional agreements, particularly on 23 November 1997 in Algiers (Algeria) with the Front of the Union of Armed Resistance Forces, and on 21 August 1998 in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, with the Democratic Force for Regeneration.
The main lines of the said agreements focused on decentralization, security management in the zones affected by the conflict and the development of those zones, as well as the integration and socio-economic reintegration of ex-combatants and the return of refugee and displaced populations in their region of origin.
To these main points were added an armistice and the release of prisoners, the reintegration of certain government servants and students, the eradication of residual insecurity because of the armed criminality and the disarmament of fronts, movements, militias and self-defence committees and the gathering of illegally detained weapons.
The Nigerien government took a series of texts that resulted in decentralization with the creation of more than 260 communes and their modes of management, as well as their deliberative bodies.
Concerning the management of security in the zones affected by the conflicts and in accordance with the spirit of agreements, particularly the integration of ex-combatants and the creation of Saharan Security Units (SSU), legislative and regulation texts were adopted.
On the development of the zones affected by the conflict, a roundtable was organized in Tahoua with the support of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and in relation to partners for development, followed by the establishment of the emergency programme from the roundtable.
With regard to the integration and socioeconomic reintegration, the Nigerien government undertook the integration of 2,852 ex-combatants out of 3,014 expected, as a socioeconomic reintegration programme for 3,500 ex-combatants was established with the help of UNDP.
The reintegration programme of populations was supported by the European Union, the French Cooperation, and the German Cooperation.
To mark the return of peace, the Nigerien government and the different fronts of the armed rebellion, with the help of partners, held a symbolic ceremony for the incineration of the weapons of the ex-combatants called "light of peace" on 25 September 2000 in Agades, the region most affected by the armed rebellion.
-0- PANA SA/BEH/MSA/RA 24Apr2020
