Niger: Opposition leader Issoufou wins run-off

Niger's electoral commission has announced that opposition leader Mahamadou Issoufou has won the second round of presidential elections by almost 58 per cent, defeating National Movement for the Society of Development (MNSD)candidate Seini Oumarou.

In the past two presidential elections, Issoufou has been defeated by former president Mamadou Tandja, who was ousted by the military about a year ago. But this time round Social Democratic Party leader Issoufou was the favourite to win the run-off, having led the first round of voting in January.

Around 2000 observers from the EU, the US, the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union (AU) said the election process had been fair and without major incident. The AU issued a statement saying it commended Niger for the “transparency and fairness of the March 12th elections” and called on the “two candidates to respect the results of polls".

Chairman of Niger's electoral commission, Ghousmane Abdourahamane, said about 3.3 million people had voted, accounting for a mere 48 per cent of the population. Experts say that many are skeptical about the country's political life after years of strife and turmoil.

A civilian president is expected to be installed by 6th April. Issoufou, former director at Areva's Nigerien operations, was prime minister from 1993-4 and was jailed in 2009 after calling for a demonstration to protest Tandja's attempts to extend his rule.

Sources: Reuters, Business Day, BBC News

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Congo and Areva in uranium exploration talks

Democratic Republic of Congo and France's Areva are in talks over possible uranium exploration at a now-closed site that once produced material for the Hiroshima bomb.

Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu and Areva's Africa Chairman Zephirin Diabre met this week, both parties confirmed, and additional discussions were likely into next year.

"We are looking to have all the geological data available before a meeting in Paris," Kabwelulu told Reuters by text message on Thursday, adding that the next meeting was likely to take place in March 2011.

"All I can confirm is that they did indeed meet," a spokesperson for Areva told Reuters by email.

Congo's largest uranium mine, Shinkolobwe, provided the uranium that went into the atomic bomb deployed by the United States on Japan in 1945 during the Second World War.

The site in the south of the vast and minerals-rich central African country was officially closed in 2004, but the United Nations has since cautioned that radioactive material from Congo is frequently smuggled out.

The site is in poor condition, likely suffering from leaks that would be costly to contain, and a lack of fencing is has opened it up to smuggling -- raising fears among Western diplomats that some of the uranium is reaching Iran.

"Uranium is the one resource that's always been at the back of everyone's mind -- it explains U.S. interest in a country that was otherwise not very interesting," said Christopher Melville, Africa specialist with London-based risk consultancy, Menas Associates.

Source: Reuters

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