Since April 2014, an unprecedented frenzy has taken shape in northern Niger. This state of tension came with the discovery of three gold sites in the Agadez region, where new fortunes were created, and where thousands sank all their savings trying to get rich. MEA Risk says gold prospecting in northern Niger has naturally enabled all sorts of criminal activity and all kinds to trade to take place, but out of government control. Many of those who found gold, for example, exchanged it for expansive Japanese four-wheel vehicles illegally imported from Libya. But many ended dying from illnesses and despair.
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