DAKAR, July 7 (Reuters) - Rebels in northern Niger have kidnapped a Chinese uranium worker and are demanding that his company stop its activities in the desert region, a spokesman for the insurgents said on Saturday.

"This region has been declared a war zone by the government and in this situation we cannot allow the Chinese to continue extracting natural resources while civilians are being killed," Seydou Kaocen Maiga, a Paris-based spokesman for the rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ), told Reuters.

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