An order issued after legal action by a group of civil society organizations in the Agadez region, in the north of the country, who want the impact of this mining operation on the environment to be reassessed.
” We declare well-founded all requests submitted by NGOs “, can we read in the order issued Monday, February 13 by a judge of the High Court of Agadez, who also rejects all the exceptions raised by the lawyers of the Société des mines de Dasa (Somida) and the State of Niger.
In this document, the judge orders Somida, created last August and owned 80% by the Canadian company Global Atomic and 20% by the State of Niger, to suspend its mining operations, to publish the environmental impact study and the specifications. It also orders monitoring and evaluation by civil society.
Within one of the organizations of this collective, we are satisfied with this decision. According to this NGO, the environmental impact study had been botched, errors made in the sampling and analysis, and the population had not been consulted. Civil society is now waiting to hear whether Somida will appeal. The deadline for doing so is fifteen days.
Contacted by RFI, lawyers for Somida and the State of Niger have not reacted for the moment.