- Title: NIGER: Niger facing double risk from Libya returnees and food crisis
- Date: 13th September 2011
- Summary: NIAMEY, NIGER (SEPTEMBER 12, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS BRIDGE OVER RIVER NIGER, CARS, PEOPLE WALKING OVER THE BRIDGE VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF OCHA, WITH POSTERS OF UNITED NATIONS OCHA NIGER TRAORE ENTERING THE COURTYARD (SOUNDBITE) (French) MODIBO TRAORE, LOCAL HEAD OF THE UNITED NATIONS' HUMANITARIAN MISSIONS OCHA, SAYING: "These people are returning to communities that are themselves lacking any means of subsistence. Some families had to sell some of their belongings to send money to their children in Libya to help them flee. So the situation is very bad whatever way you look at it." TRAORE TALKING TO SOMEONE IN THE COURTYARD (SOUNDBITE) (French) MODIBO TRAORE, LOCAL HEAD OF THE UNITED NATIONS' HUMANITARIAN MISSIONS OCHA, SAYING: "We have been told that in the south of Libya, in Sabha, there are still thousands of sub-Saharan Africans and Nigeriens who are in extremely difficult humanitarian situation. Many of them cannot leave and are under constant threat," BRIDGE WITH PEOPLE AND TRAFFIC GOING PAST
- Embargoed: 28th September 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Niger, Niger
- Country: Niger
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA23BPVNMVXI9PPMC0H473UP1JH
- Story Text: Niger risks being destabilised by thousands of migrants, some of them armed, returning home from Libya, at just the moment when it faces an impending food crisis, the local head of the United Nations' humanitarian missions told Reuters on Monday (September 12).
Modibo Traore said the influx from Libya of Nigerien workers fleeing with next to nothing meant that their families back home could not count on the steady flow of remittances which are an essential financial prop for Niger's 16-million-head population.
"These people are returning to communities that are themselves lacking any means of subsistence. Some families had to sell some of their belongings to send money to their children in Libya to help them flee. So the situation is very bad whatever way you look at it," Traore said in an interview.
Earlier, Niger's Prime Minister Brigi Rafini told diplomats at a meeting in the capital Niamey that the Libyan conflict risked "harmful consequences" for Niger, appealing for support on both humanitarian and security matters.
Rafini said that due to a combination of floods in some parts of the country, poor crop development, pest attacks and drought, harvests were lower than expected this year.
So far over 150,000 people have fled Libya into the northern part of Niger, mostly covered by desert. Nigeriens and other sub-Saharan Africans have for years sought work in oil-rich Libya, where average income per head is 20 times Niger's.
Traore warned that more migrants and refugees would flee into Niger if fighting in south Libya intensifies, and even Libyan citizens could flee to the north of Niger and some to Niamey to seek refuge.
"We have been told that in the south of Libya, in Sabha, there are still thousands of sub-Saharan Africans and Nigeriens who are in extremely difficult humanitarian situation. Many of them cannot leave and are under constant threat," he said.
He added that this could mean instability for Niger, given that those arrivals are not always coming with a mattress and a blanket, and some could come in with weapons.
The Libyan crisis has also landed Niger with a political hot potato in the shape of four convoys containing senior Gaddafi loyalists, among them the chief of his security brigades, three generals and his son Saadi.
Rafini stressed that as far as Niger was aware, none of the 32 Libyans who had so far shown up in Niger were being sought internationally. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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