Shifting sands in Niger

More than ten years on from a ceasefire many Tuareg are again fighting a government they say is trying to destroy them

Fighters from the MNJ - the Nigerien Movement for Justice - are put through their paces at dawn, not far from positions controlled by the Niger army

Comprised of ethnic Tuaregs and other nomadic tribes, the MNJ took up arms in February 2007 demanding a greater share of the Sahara's natural resources that make Niger potentially worth billions of dollars

Kamil Kamel, a MNJ fighter, says: "We are not even considered citizens in our own country. We live in misery. We live in ignorance and disease. Why?"

MNJ fighters live life on the move. Like many conflicts in Africa, their rebellion is about resources. Niger is the world's fourth-largest producer of uranium but despite the fact that much of it is found in Tuareg areas, the MNJ say their people see none of the profits

In 1991 a series of devastating droughts provoked the first Tuareg rebellion. A ceasefire followed four years later with the promise of greater rights for Tuaregs. The MNJ says this promise has been broken and the plight of Niger's nomadic tribes is worsening

Many Tuareg civilians have been displaced as a result of the recent fighting. They now live out in the open in an environment which is becoming increasingly inhospitable as a result of draught and desertification

Ahmed's mother died while giving birth to him. His grandmother says that had they still been living in their village she would have been taken to a hospital and may have survived. One in seven women in Niger die in childbirth

The nomadic tribes living closest to one of the world's largest uranium mines at Arlit say that they are falling ill with conditions that were not seen in the area before the mining of uranium