Niger

Niger appealed for emergency food aid to help millions of people facing severe shortages in the poor West African nation after a drought and locust infestation. "In these difficult, and to be honest, tragic moments ... I want to launch ... an anguished appeal to the international community for emergency food aid," Prime Minister Hama Amadou told the parliament. About 3.6 million people in Niger are in critical need of food aid, the United Nations says.

Mutinous soldiers tried to take over three garrisons in Niamey, the capital of Niger, but they were repelled by loyalist troops in a gun battle that lasted more than two hours, government officials said. There was no immediate indication of casualties. The 6-day-old revolt was launched in eastern Niger by soldiers demanding months of unpaid back salary. Authorities claimed to have retaken the eastern garrison city of Diffa, but two other posts reportedly were still in mutineers' control.

About 3.6 million people face starvation in the West African nation of Niger unless international donors respond urgently to the food crisis there, the aid agency Oxfam said. Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, was devastated by an invasion of locusts last year and was then hit by drought that lasted until this month. "The situation is desperate.

NIGER * Forces loyal to Niger's government overran one of two garrisons where mutinous soldiers were holding out, driving them to a single outpost amid the blistering dunes of the Sahara Desert, officials said. President Mamadou Tandja urged mutineers, who are demanding back pay and better conditions, to return to their units. But after two mutinies in a week, he vowed that ringleaders would be punished as a warning to others.

Niger's government called off a threat to expel thousands of Arab refugees who had fled neighboring Chad. Spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar said the government was not reacting to international pressure. On Thursday, Omar had said 3,300 refugees living in Niger without proper identity documents would have to leave. That number was many times smaller than an original figure from the interior minister, who said Tuesday that 150,000 refugees were required to leave because of ecosystem damage.

Rebels attacked an army base in Niger, killing 13 soldiers, wounding 30 and taking at least 47 prisoners, officials said. A statement read on national TV by government spokesman Mohammed ben Omar said a group of heavily armed men attacked security forces early in the day in a remote Saharan outpost not far from Libya.

Egypt and Niger were declared free of endemic polio Wednesday by the World Health Organization, bringing the goal of eradicating the paralyzing disease worldwide a step nearer. Egypt, where polio has been traced back 5,000 years, has had no cases for more than a year, and the nine reported in Niger were due to imports of the virus from neighboring Nigeria.

Niger said an expulsion order issued this week applied to 3,300 refugees from neighboring Chad who lack proper identity documents, not 150,000. The interior minister had said Tuesday that the larger number of Arab refugees, who have lived in this West African nation for decades, would have to leave because they were destroying arid Niger's fragile ecosystem, particularly water sources. Government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar said the 3,300 had until Saturday to leave the country.

Niger's President Mamadou Tandja looked set to win another five-year term as head of one of the world's poorest nations after a strong voter turnout in a second round of elections. Tandja, a former army officer credited with bringing a measure of political and economic stability to the mostly desert nation, is expected to win the runoff after sealing the support of the parliament speaker, who finished third in the first round.

Food by the truckload is finally reaching remote northern Niger, eight months after the first pleas for help. United Nations appeals beginning in November went almost unanswered until the situation reached crisis proportions. Almost a third of the population of 11.3 million risk starvation in this desperately poor West African nation, hit by locusts and then drought.