Niger Student Riots Leave at Least 10 Injured

Two days of student riots in the capital of the west African state of Niger have left at least 10 people injured and several dozen vehicles trashed, Niamey's governor has said.

The clashes in Niamey on Tuesday and Wednesday pitted police using tear gas against hundreds of students angry at delays in the payment of their grants, and armed with stones and hunks of wood.

"There have been been at least 10 people hurt and some arrests," city governor Hamidou Garba said on state television late Wednesday, after the students blocked main roads with burning tyres and tree trunks.

The general secretary of the student union at the Niamey University, Younous Abdouramane, gave AFP a much higher toll from the clashes, saying that about 30 people had been injured and 62 detained by police.

Twenty-six cars and half a dozen motorbikes were badly damaged in the disturbances, the governor said. Two cars belonged to government ministers while seven others were owned by French nuclear giant Areva, which mines uranium in the poor country's desert north.

The students also laid waste to the premises of Niger's Grant Allocation Agency.

"All those responsible for these actions will answer for them before the courts," Garba said.