NIAMEY, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has halted work in northern Niger after three of its vehicles were stolen in hold-ups in the region where a Tuareg-led revolt is underway, the international aid agency said on Wednesday. The Paris-based medical group said that in the latest attack, five men, one of them armed, stopped a six-person MSF team travelling in two vehicles between the northern regional capital of Agadez and Dabaga, a town 50 km (30 miles) further north. The assailants, whom MSF did not identify, made off with the vehicles and the medical equipment and supplies they carried. This followed a similar theft of an MSF vehicle on Oct. 16 on the same road to Dabaga, where the group had been supplying medical aid, food and logistical support to a local dispensary. "Following this latest violent incident, we have decided to halt our work at Dabaga and in the region, because the security conditions do not allow us to carry out our activities for the people of this area," MSF said in a statement. A Tuareg-led rebel group, the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ), has waged an eight-month military campaign for greater autonomy and government revenues in desolate northern Niger, home to some of the richest deposits of uranium in the world. It has killed at least 45 soldiers, mostly with landmines, forcing the authorities to declare a state of alert in the Agadez region in August. President Mamadou Tandja's government refuses to recognise the MNJ and denounces the movement as bandits and drug smugglers. MSF said that when it reported the latest vehicle hijack to the local Agadez governor, he officially asked the organisation to suspend its activities in the region. The group was continuing to operate in the south of Niger in the Maradi district. Since the Tuareg-led rebellion started, hold-ups of vehicles have increased in the north and the rebels have also raided at least one uranium mine. Niger's uranium provides around a quarter of France's electricity and French state-run utility Areva operates mines in the region. Chinese investors hope to start production soon.
