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Sahel: Insurgents strike in Banibangou Niger, kill dozen civilians
A suspected jihadist attack on three lorries and a motorcycle in western Niger near the border with Mali killed 11 people, local sources told AFP on Sunday. The attack took place on a remote road in the so-called "three borders" region between Niger, Mali and Burkina...
Environment: Sahel region crippled by torrential rains and deadly floods
Flooding caused by torrential rain in Niger has left 195 people dead and affected more than 322,000, an official toll showed on Saturday. This year's rainy season is one of the deadliest in the West African country's history. As of October 21, 59 people had drowned...
Sahel: Record death toll from floods in Niger
Flooding caused by heavy rains in the West African state of Niger has claimed nearly 200 lives and affected more than a quarter of a million people, the Civil Protection Service said on Thursday, describing the toll as one of the highest on record. Rainy-season floods...
Sahel: Niger suspends oil deliveries to Mali after Bamako launched verbal attack on Niger’s president
Niger has suspended the shipping of oil products through the Sahel nation to neighbouring Mali for "security reasons" in the face of a jihadist insurgency, customs sources told AFP Tuesday. An internal customs service note dated September 21 declared "the suspension...
Insurgencies: Boko Haram fighters pouring into Niger’s side of Lake Chad
Hundreds of Boko Haram jihadists have fled a forest enclave in northeast Nigeria, escaping air strikes by the military and floods from torrential rains to seek shelter on Niger's side of Lake Chad, sources told AFP. Northeast Nigeria is facing a 13-year armed...
The Sahel is in permanent state of climate shock, the world’s most vulnerable to extreme droughts, floods and heatwaves
The World Bank on Monday urged five West African countries to diversify their economies to adapt to climate change, warning they are extremely vulnerable to extreme weather patterns. A report said Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger -- all in the arid...
Sahel: More than 150 dead in Niger rainy season floods
Severe floods in Niger after months of heavy downpours have killed 159 people, authorities said Monday, marking one of the deadliest rainy seasons in history for a normally arid state. The landlocked Sahel state's annual rainy season typically runs between June and...
Sahel: 50 migrants rescued in Niger desert
A total of 50 West African migrants, including women and children, were rescued in the desert in northern Niger near the Libyan border, the United Nations said Tuesday. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the migrants were "vulnerable and in...
Algeria deports hundreds of migrants from Niger
More than 800 migrants expelled this week by Algeria have reached the northern Niger town of Agadez, local authorities told AFP. "In all we have 847 people, including 40 women and 74 unaccompanied children," Agadez municipal authority said late Thursday. The child...
Sahel: Floods wrecking havoc on the country of Niger
Powerful rains that have swept the arid state of Niger since June have left 75 dead and affected 108,000 people, the government said on Tuesday. The previous toll issued by the Civil Protection Agency on August 14 was 32 dead and nearly 67,000 affected. The worst-hit...
Niger tries artificial rainmaking to ease drought
Niger has deployed rainmaking planes in a bid to alleviate a drought that has sparked fears of a food crisis in the desert nation, weather authorities said Thursday. "We had to do something about this drought," said Katiellou Gaptia Lawan, head of the national...
Sahel: Dozens dead in Niger’s floods and landslides
Flooding and landslides during Niger's rainy season have killed 32 people and affected more than 66,000 since June, authorities in the Sahel state said. Seventeen people died when their homes collapsed and 15 drowned, while 44 were injured, according to the latest...
Sahel: Suspected jihadists kill 4 Mali soldiers, 2 civilians in Tessit
At least four soldiers, two civilians and five assailants were killed on Sunday in an attack in a strategic border zone between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Mali's army said. The army blamed the attack on "terrorists" in an announcement late Sunday, using the term it...
Terrorism: Insurgents raid bus in SW Niger, kill 21 passengers
Suspected jihadists attacked a bus and a truck in southwest Niger, killing 21 people in the troubled Tillaberi region near Burkina Faso, local and security sources said on Thursday. Niger, the world's poorest country according to the UN's Human Development Index, is...
Sahel: 18 civilians killed in Jihadist attack in west Niger
Eighteen civilians have been killed in two suspected jihadist attacks in the west of Niger near the Sahel nation's border with Mali, the government said Tuesday. The attack happened on Sunday when unidentified "armed bandits" on motorbikes attacked a truck travelling...
Security/Sahel: Joint Burkina Faso/Niger counter-insurgency operation claims neutralizing dozens of jihadists
The armies of Burkina Faso and neighbouring Niger said Thursday they had killed around 100 "terrorists" in a joint military operation against jihadists on the border between November 25 and December 9. The operation managed to "neutralise around 100 terrorists" and...
Sahel: Niger president says weapons from Libya fuel violence in Sahel
Niger President Mohamed Bazoum on Monday urged his country's allies to step up the fight against arms trafficking from Libya, which he said is fuelling the Sahel's jihadist insurgency. "The partners' biggest failure has been their weak involvement in the fight against...
Sahel: Disasters hit Niger hard
By Boureima Hama Few countries in the world struggle with as many burdens as Niger. The arid Sahel state is the world's poorest country according to the UN's Human Development Index. It faces bloody jihadist insurgencies on two of its borders. And now it is being...
Niger: Unable to get protection from the government, Niger villagers are now forming militia groups
By Boureima Hama Abdoulaye casts a questioning eye over the passengers of a car that has pulled up at the entrance to his village in western Niger. Slung over the shoulder of his long and slender frame are a bow and a quiver of arrows -- the only weapon he has against...
Security: As Russia’s influence in Africa grows, EU wants to impose sanctions on Russian mercenaries Wagner
EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to draw up more sanctions on shadowy Russian mercenary group Wagner over its involvement in a string of hotspots, the bloc's foreign policy chief said. The private military outfit, which Western capitals see as closely linked to the...
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