Government to extradite Niger mutineers, says minister

Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sule Lamido said on Tuesday any soldier involved in the failed mutiny in neighbouring Niger Republic, who escaped across the border into the country, will be extradited. "Where we are sure that these people are here and we identify them, we will apprehend them and return them to their country," Lamido told reporters in the capital Abuja. Soldiers stationed in Niger’s southern town of Diffa, near the border with Nigeria, mutinied last week, seizing the local airport and taking their senior commanders hostage. But the rebellion collapsed after loyal troops intervened and retook the town. Some of the mutineers are thought to have fled across the border into Nigeria and last week the Niger government appealed to its southern neighbour to help extradite about 100 soldiers. But the Nigerian authorities said they were yet to identify any fleeing soldiers, admitting they may have melted into the local population. "If they removed their uniforms before crossing the border into Nigeria, it would be difficult to identify them because the border between the two countries is invisible due to similarities in culture, language, and religion of citizens of both countries," Lamido said. "It is difficult to draw a line between the two peoples because a soldier from the Niger Republic, shedding his uniform and crossing into Nigeria can easily melt into the crowd," he added. More than 90 percent of Niger’s population are Hausa-Fulani Muslims, the dominant ethnic stock and faith to be found across the border in northern Nigeria.