NIGER: Malians crossing into Niger from Gao talk about fear at the hands of jihadists

Record ID: 235906

  • Title: NIGER: Malians crossing into Niger from Gao talk about fear at the hands of jihadists
  • Date: 16th January 2013
  • Summary: AYOROU VILLAGE, 20 KILOMETRES FROM NIGER TO MALI BORDER (JANUARY 15, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AYOROU VILLAGE / PEOPLE TRAVELLING ON DONKEYS / WOMEN COOKING ON SIDE OF STREET MAHAMADOU ABDOULAYE, TRUCK DRIVER, PARKING HIS VEHICLE (SOUNDBITE) (Zarma) MINIBUS DRIVER, MAHAMADOU ABDOULAYE, SAYING: "I came back from Mali this afternoon. All we saw on the road is just checkpoints by al Qaeda people. They stop us and they completely search the vehicle. Even today, it's God that saved us. One of my friends, another truck driver he was unlucky to stop too close to their barrier and they made him come out and threatened him. Luckily we were able to negotiate with these people and we were still very scared." VARIOUS OF VILLAGE SCENES (SOUNDBITE) (Zarma) MINIBUS DRIVER, MAHAMADOU ABDOULAYE, SAYING: "The passengers I brought back with me came from Gao. We crossed paths with another truck driver who took them on in Gao. He told them he wasn't able to go all the way to Niger, but they were hurrying to leave Mali." CHILDREN PLAYING AT A DISTRIBUTION CENTRE FOR REFUGEES (SOUNDBITE) (Zarma) MINIBUS DRIVER, MAHAMADOU ABDOULAYE, SAYING: "We are all afraid, particularly as there are young people who enrolled with them, they are too young and they don't even master the weapons very well, that's for sure. You can see fear on everyone's faces." ABDOULAYE GETTING IN HIS CAR ABDOURAHAMANE AL HOUSSEINI, AYOROU BUS STATION CHIEF, SAT DOWN UNDER A SHELTER (SOUNDBITE) (Zarma) AYOROU BUS STATION CHIEF, ABDOURAHAMANE AL HOUSSEINI, SAYING: "We don't have any news of what's going on there. All we hear comes from these minibus drivers here, because the phones don't work anymore. All the lines were cut because they (Islamists) thought that their positions can be disclosed through their phone lines." AL HOUSSEINI'S HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (Zarma) AYOROU BUS STATION CHIEF, ABDOURAHAMANE AL HOUSSEINI, SAYING: "We are really afraid, honestly. The Arabs over there, and the bearded ones, they are all the same, they are not scared of anything."
  • Embargoed: 31st January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Niger
  • Country: Niger
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA73TKHIKUJCYKWZ86X9S65EH2C
  • Story Text: It's not business as usual, as it may seem in this border village with next-door Mali. Villagers living here, only 23 kilometres (15 miles) from the Malian border, worry for their safety.
    Mali's north, a vast and inhospitable area of desert and rugged mountains the size of Texas, was seized last year by an Islamist alliance combining al Qaeda's north African wing AQIM with splinter group MUJWA and the home-grown Ansar Dine rebels.
    Mahamadou Abdoulaye, a 35 year old Nigerien truck driver, who's countlessly ferried passengers across the border to Gao, says his last trip was not the same.

    "I came back from Mali yesterday. All we saw on the road is just checkpoints by al Qaeda people. They stop us and they completely search the vehicle. Even today, it's God that saved us. One of my friends, another truck driver he was unlucky to stop too close to their barrier and they made him come out and threatened him. Luckily we were able to negotiate with these people and we were still very scared," Abdoulaye said.
    According to the UNHCR only about 450 refugees crossed the border into Niger since last Friday (January 11). But many more are displaced within Mali, or simply can't make it to the border.
    Abdoulaye's small bus brought back 11 people.

    "The passengers I brought back with me came from Gao. We crossed paths with another driver who took them on in Gao. He told them he wasn't able to go all the way to Niger, but they were hurrying to leave Mali," Abdoulaye said.
    Paris has poured hundreds of soldiers into Mali and carried out 50 bombing raids since Friday in the Islamist-controlled northern half of the country, which Western and regional states fear could become a base for terrorist attacks in Africa and Europe.
    France pledged on Tuesday (January 15) to keep troops in Mali until stability returned to the West African country, raising the spectre of a long campaign against al Qaeda-linked rebels who held their ground despite a fifth day of air strikes.

    "We are all afraid, particularly as there are young people who enrolled with them, they are too young and they don't even master the weapons very well, that's for sure. You can see fear on everyone's faces," Abdoulaye said.
    Thousands of African soldiers are due to take over the offensive to dislodge the Islamist rebels. Regional armies are scrambling to accelerate an operation which was initially not expected until September and has been brought forward by France's surprise bombing campaign aimed at stopping a rebel advance on a strategic town last week.
    But people in this remote village, who used to be able to speak to their relatives across the border regularly, are now completely cut off.

    "We don't have any news of what's going on there. All we hear comes from these minibus drivers here, because the phones don't work anymore. All the lines were cut because they (Islamists) thought that their positions can be disclosed through their phone lines," said the chief of the Ayourou bus station, Abdourahamane Al Housseini.
    Islamist rebels had threatened France and French interests with retaliation if the attacks continue. With Niger due to debate it sending troops into Mali, Al Housseini said everyone in Ayouro, a stone's throw away from Mali, is weary.

    "We are really afraid, honestly. The Arabs over there, and the bearded ones, they are all the same, they are not scared of anything," he said.
    Nigerien house wife Hadiza Djibo has lived in Mali for many years. But the recent violence led her to brave the journey back home.

    "We are really afraid. I came back from Mali yesterday and it was even hard to be able to cross the border. We used all our means to be able to cross," she said.
    The United States is still assessing what military aid to give France in its fight against al Qaeda-affiliated militants in Mali but has no plans to send U.S. troops, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Tuesday.
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