page_title: Tuareg rebellion (2007–2009)
section_title: Civilian opening
hierarchical_section_title: Tuareg rebellion (2007–2009) / Niger: 2009 peace talks / Civilian opening
caption_attribution_description: Fatimana Imola says army officers killed and dismembered her younger brother, Imola Kalakouawa when they suspected him of planting a mine last June. Villagers accused 25-year-old Army Lieutenant Abdou Aziz Lawali of executing Kalakouawa and two others. Currently held as a MNJ prisoner of war, the army lieutenant says he is not responsible. He says other officers killed them out of revenge for allegedly planting mines that killed soldiers. "How would you feel if you just saw your family die in a mine attack," he asks. He says this is the anger soldiers feel when they lose their troops and try to find out who is responsible.
context_page_description: The Tuareg Rebellion of 2007–2009 was an insurgency that began in February 2007 amongst elements of the Tuareg people living in the Sahara desert regions of northern Mali and Niger. It is one of a series of insurgencies by formerly nomadic Tuareg populations, which had last appeared in the mid-1990s, and date back at least to 1916. Populations dispersed to Algeria and Libya, as well as to the south of Niger and Mali in the 1990s returned only in the late 1990s. Former fighters were to be integrated into national militaries, but the process has been slow and caused increased resentment. Malian Tuaregs had conducted some raids in 2005–2006, which ended in a renewed peace agreement. Fighting in both nations was carried on largely in parallel, but not in concert. While fighting was mostly confined to guerrilla attacks and army counterattacks, large portions of the desert north of each nation were no-go zones for the military and civilians fled to regional capitals like Kidal, Mali and Agadez, Niger. Fighting was largely contained within Mali's Kidal Region and Niger's Agadez Region.
context_section_description: In Agadez Region, several events signaled a return to peace. On 28 April the United Nations World Food Programme announced it would begin aiding the repatriation of 20,000 people internally displaced since 2007. The towns of Iférouane, Gougaram, Danet, Dabaga and Tchirozérine would receive food and resettlement centres to ease the transition.  Despite this, the government in Niamey announced on 23 May that it had renewed the "state of emergency" in the entire Agadez Region for another three months, allowing preventive detention and banning public gatherings.
caption: Fatimana Imola, a Tuareg woman in Northern Niger is interviewed by Voice of America journalists. She says army officers killed and dismembered her younger brother, Imola Kalakouawa when they suspected him of planting a mine in June 2007.
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