{French nuclear giant Areva was solely responsible for a controversial $320m (\u00a3250m) uranium deal, a parliamentary investigation in Niger has said.}<\/p>\n
The 2011 deal, known as “uranium-gate”, involved companies in Niger and abroad. Activists have begun legal proceedings.<\/p>\n
It caused an uproar after a local paper said it had served as cover for officials to embezzle public funds.<\/p>\n
The report did not find any evidence of wrongdoing by any officials. Areva says it cannot comment on the report.<\/p>\n
The French company says it has not yet received the report. It has previously said it was co-operating with a French investigation into the case.<\/p>\n
Niger is one of the world’s biggest uranium producers and the metal is the country’s largest export.<\/p>\n
Opposition parties say the report has been botched and lacks integrity.<\/p>\n
They say that two of their lawmakers who were part of the group which led the inquiry were not associated in drafting the document.<\/p>\n
Last month, activists in Niger started legal action into the deal, saying they feared the parliamentary investigation would lead to a whitewash.<\/p>\n
Their complaint alleges embezzlement of public funds, money laundering, forgery and conspiracy to defraud.<\/p>\n
According to the parliamentary inquiry: “A transaction took place indeed between Sopamin [a local mining company], Areva and other international partners.”<\/p>\n
“The uranium used in that transaction is not uranium from Niger. The money transferred to [a bank account] in Dubai to fund the transaction is neither money of the state of Niger nor of Sopamin – it is Areva’s money.”<\/p>\n
The on-going legal action centres on the allegation that Areva in 2011 bought a stock of uranium from Niger at a discounted price, causing the national treasury to lose money.<\/p>\n
{{‘Trading operation’}}<\/p>\n
Areva used the transaction to provide funds requested by Niger to secure uranium sites in the north against militant attacks, the report said.<\/p>\n
Niger’s uranium mines are located in the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert, an area where Islamist groups such as a local branch of al-Qaeda are active.<\/p>\n
The report said that Finance Minister Hassoumi Massoudou had been involved as a mandated “representative” of Sopamin to facilitate the transfer of the requested funds.
\nHe has previously denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
A separate French enquiry has been looking into the “uranium-gate” allegations as part of a wider investigation into Areva’s business dealings.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the nuclear giant told the BBC the company maintains that the 2011 transaction was a “trading operation”.<\/p>\n
“We have not seen the report and cannot comment on it,” the spokesperson added.
\nNiger has two significant uranium mines that provide 7.5% of the world mining output from Africa’s highest-grade uranium ores, according to the World Nuclear Association, the international organisation that represents the global nuclear industry.<\/p>\n
Niger’s first commercial uranium mine began operating in 1971, with a strong government support for expanding uranium mining.<\/p>\n
Source:BBC <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{French nuclear giant Areva was solely responsible for a controversial $320m (\u00a3250m) uranium deal, a parliamentary investigation in Niger has said.} The 2011 deal, known as “uranium-gate”, involved companies in Niger and abroad. Activists have begun legal proceedings. It caused an uproar after a local paper said it had served as cover for officials to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-34256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34256"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=34256"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=34256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}