Niger | featured news

The US has deployed 100 troops to Niger to assist French forces in neighbouring Mali, President Barack Obama says.

Libya urged Niger on Saturday to extradite Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi, saying his call for Libyans to prepare for a "coming uprising" threatened bilateral ties.

A convoy carrying ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s son al-Saadi has crossed into neighboring Niger, a spokesman for Niger’s government said Sunday, the highest profile former regime figure to flee to the landlocked African nation. Al-Saadi, the fugitive ruler’s 37-year-old son, entered Niger in a convoy with nine other people, said Niger Justice Minister Amadou Morou. The vehicles were traveling south toward the outpost of Agadez, where other fleeing Libyan loyalists are believed to be holed up in a hotel.

As Interpol issued arrest warrants for the fugitive Libyan autocrat Col. Muammar Qaddafi and two others on Friday, reports came from Niger of a new convoy of high-ranking Libyan officials arriving across the desert.

Scores of Libyan army vehicles have crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a dramatic, secretly negotiated bid by Muammar Gaddafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state, military sources from France and Niger told Reuters on Tuesday.

Leaders of Niger's military coup promise a "return to constitutional order", three days after overthrowing the president.

An "ongoing attempted coup d'état" was taking place Thursday in the Republic of Niger, according to the Niger Embassy in London, England.