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Military Reform – 2000

In June 2000, Sia Katou, commander in chief of the Union of Armed Resistance Fronts (Union des Fronts de la Résistance Armée – UFRA), complained that 3,500 ex-combatants were still waiting to be integrated.¹ However, a gradual progress was made. According to a news report, the integration of former combatants was still an ongoing process as of 2000. In a ceremony organized to witness the disarmament and integration of the last wave of armed resistance group members near Agadez on 5 June 2000, it was informed that the MUR expansion untraced. Nevertheless, the Patriotic Front for the Liberation of the Sahara; and the Revolutionary Armed Forces-UFRA were in encampment site. The first wave of integration, after the Algiers supplementary accord of 1997, started to integrate the MUR expansion untraced; the Patriotic Front for the Liberation of the Sahara; and the Revolutionary Armed Forces (UFRA) into the Saharan security units and the Niger Armed Forces. According to an official count, 79 UFRA ex-combatants would be incorporated into the different military and paramilitary corps. A similar operation would also be carried out simultaneously for 64 members of the Front for the Liberation of Air and Azaouak-SLT expansion untraced -Saharan Revolutionary Armed Front-Armed Resistance Organization Coalition. Recruitment into the defense and security forces had already started at the Agadez youth and cultural centre.²

1. “Niger: Disarmament of armed groups reaches final stage, quoting La Voix du Sahel,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, June 6, 2000.
2. “Niger: Disarmament of armed groups reaches final stage,” BBC Monitoring Africa — Political, June 7, 2000.