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Sahel: Niger seeks to restore normalcy, announces measures to ease lockdown
Niamey, May 15, 2020 - Niger's government on Friday lifted measures to isolate the capital Niamey to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus and also restarted passenger transport services. Niger introduced restrictions, including a night-time curfew and a ban on...
Sahel: Niger sinking into chaos
By Boureima Hama - Amid clucking chickens and bleating sheep, the women of Gadbo, a small village in western Niger, gather around Zalika Issa and offer their condolences. Her nephew, shot dead in front of a crowd near the village well, was one of 20 people massacred...
Niger: Despite more border surveillance, migration flows to Europe continue
Niamey, May 10, 2020 (By Boureima Hama) - Many Africans are managing to evade coronavirus lockdown barriers in Niger, the Sahel's migrant crossroads, as they press on with their perilous desert trek to the Mediterranean Sea and ultimately Europe. The migrant flow has...
Sahel: Terror groups in Sahel exploit Covid-19 to step up attacks
United Nations, United States, May 8, 2020 - UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres has warned that jihadist groups in the Sahel area of North Africa are exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to step up attacks, according to documents seen by AFP. The United Nations...
Sahel: Africom says it lost drone in Niger due to technical failure
Niamey, May 7, 2020 - The US military in Niger said Thursday they had lost a second drone in two months, both through technical failure rather than from hostile action in the conflict-torn country. "A... remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) was lost near Agadez, Niger,...
Sahel: Niger labor minister succumbs from Covid-19
Niamey, May 4, 2020 - The novel coronavirus caused the death of Niger's minister of employment and labour, Mohamed Ben Omar, public television announced Monday. The minister's Social Democratic Party (PSD) reported Ben Omar, 55, had died on Sunday at the main hospital...
Sahel: Boko Haram attacks Diffa in Niger
Niamey, May 5, 2020 - Boko Haram fighters clashed with government forces on Sunday in Diffa, the largest city in southwestern Niger, in what the jihadists said was a successful attack on a military camp. Conflicting versions of the outcome emerged on Tuesday, with the...
Sahel: Mali and Niger troops accused of extra-judicial killings
Bamako, April 30, 2020 - The UN mission in Mali on Thursday blamed Malian and Niger troops for scores of extra-judicial killings between January and March. According to a quarterly MINUSMA report, Malian forces carried out 101 executions and Niger forces 34 more...
Sahel: Niger faces escalating riots in coming days
Niamey, April 22, 2020 (By Boureima Hama) - With the holy Muslim month of Ramadan set to start this weekend, authorities in Niger are fearing violence after several cities saw riots over anti-coronavirus lockdowns banning collective prayers. "We just want to pray in...
Niger: Police arrest 108 protesters after unrest in Niamey, 10 sent to prison
Sahel: Unrest in Niamey’s Lazaret neighborhood over curfew
Niamey, April 20, 2020 - Clashes erupted in Niamey, the capital of the Sahel nation of Niger, over the government's anti-coronavirus curfew and a ban on prayer gatherings, local inhabitants told AFP Monday. Violence broke out just after 8pm (1900 GMT) on Sunday in...
The coronavirus in the Sahel
Bamako - By Amaury Hauchard with Armel Baily in Ouagadougou: The rise of coronavirus in the war-torn Sahel has sparked sharp fears for the region's hundreds of thousands of displaced people, often packed inside camps. "If we have coronavirus here, it will be a...
Sahel: Covid-19 magnifies food crisis in the Sahel
Dakar, April 2, 2020 - More than five million people in Africa's conflict-ravaged Sahel region are facing hunger, the World Food Programme said Thursday, just as the novel coronavirus is spreading into affected countries. In a statement, the WFP called the situation...
Sahel: Africom commander speaks of ineffective European strategy in the Sahel
Washington, March 10, 2020 - European anti-jihadist efforts in the troubled Sahel region are "insufficient" and "uncoordinated," a senior US military official said Tuesday. "I think that Europe can and should do more before America should do more in this part of the...
Sahel: US appoints new Sahel representative
Washington, March 8, 2020 - The State Department announced Sunday it had nominated J. Peter Pham, the envoy to Africa's Great Lakes region, as the first US special envoy for the Sahel crisis. Pham's nomination comes amid fears that the jihadist threat in the region is...
Sahel: US mulling more engagement in the Sahel
Washington, March 3, 2020 - The United States is planning to appoint a special envoy for the Sahel crisis amid fears that the jihadist threat is spreading, a senior official said Tuesday. "That is one area where the situation is getting much worse by the day," said...
Sahel: The African Union to the rescue
Addis Ababa, Feb 27, 2020 - The African Union confirmed Thursday that it expected to send a temporary deployment of 3,000 troops to West Africa's Sahel region, where regional forces are struggling to respond to a nearly eight-year-old onslaught by armed Islamists. The...
Sahel: With insurgents several steps ahead, Sahel leaders are disoriented
Nouakchott, Feb 25, 2020 - A summit of Sahel states heard appeals Tuesday to step up the fight against jihadists whose offensive across three countries has claimed thousands of lives and inflicted crippling economic damage. "More than ever, the Sahel requires...
Sahel: Food distribution program gone wrong, scores of refugees killed in Niger stampede
Niamey, Feb 17, 2020 - Twenty people, many of them women and children, were trampled to death on Monday in a stampede for food and money for refugees in southeast Niger, sources said. "We have a provisional toll of 20 dead," a medical source said. Aid workers...
West Africa facing Jihadist contagion from the Sahel
Cotonou, Feb 14, 2020 (By Josue Mehouenou with Sophie Bouillon in Lagos) - An attack on police in the far north of Benin has spurred fears that a country struggling with political problems is now at threat from jihadism sweeping down from the Sahel. The authorities...
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