Protests in Niamey

Niger has had a number of major incidents lately, perhaps not major enough to hit Canadian news. The main items:
- The President Tandja has been asked to step down from government but he has refused and has dismissed the government. This has resulted in a lot of protest and dissension amongst the peoples. We've seen clashes and fighting on TV between government forces and local people. In the city of Dosso the protestors attacked the Governor's home and burned his car.
- the largest market in the captial city Niger caught fire and half of it burned down.

Here's part of a notice sent out by the U.S. Embassy in Niger:
"A Nigerien political consortium opposed to President Tandja's efforts to extend his mandate, known as "Tazarche" has rescheduled its nationwide public demonstration to Sunday, June 14. In Niamey, protesters are expected to gather at 8:00 a.m. at Rond Point Eglise. Additional public protests or rallies by opposition and government supporters could occur outside of Sunday's scheduled demonstration. The Islamic Council in Niger has called for a day of prayer at the Grand Mosque on the day preceding the rally, Saturday, June 13. While it is impossible to estimate the size of planned demonstrations , they could be very large. Recent events in Dosso, where a pro-Tazarche demonstration ended in violence, indicate that even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and quickly escalate into violence. American citizens are urged to avoid demonstrations, exercise caution within the vicinity of any large public gathering, and stock up on food, water and other basic necessities in the event of disruption of services and deliveries of goods throughout the country. In addition, American citizens should stay current with media coverage of local events and be aware of their surroundings at all times."



I don't have photos of such things, so here's a fun photo on a completely unrelated topic.

We recently visited the ancient capital of Niger called Zinder, in the east of the country. The city (about 150,000 people) has many winding roads. Here's Christine with the neighbourhood kids who were curiously following us...