Tensions are high in Agadez, a major hub for African migrants en route to Europe. Police arrested more than 300 people after a refugee camp was set ablaze last Saturday. The UN is calling for restraint.
Almost 1.5 million more euros will be added to a fund set up by Italy to help African nations, specifically for projects in Niger and Ethiopia.
In Niger and the Sahel region in west-central Africa, the trade in goods and people has been big business for centuries. In the last few years, people smuggling was an officially recognized profession. In some cases, smugglers even paid taxes. But in the last year, that business has been experiencing a downturn as a series of laws, passed originally in 2015, have begun to bite, causing the former smugglers to look elsewhere for an income.
In the Tenere desert in south central Sahara, days can go by without a single vehicle passing on the road. In March this year, the gear box on a truck carrying 25 migrants heading for Libya broke down. When help arrived three days later, the migrants were hungry, thirsty, and traumatized. Had it not been for their rescuers, Alarm Phone Sahara, they might well have perished.
A new document by the German government highlights strengths and weaknesses in ongoing EU efforts to evacuate migrants and refugees stranded in Libya. It focused in particular on recent initiatives to move migrants to Rwanda and Niger.
A new sports center for migrants evacuated from Libya has opened in Niger's capital, Niamey. It is hoped that the center, built by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, will help the migrants to overcome trauma.
Tens of thousands of people have set out from West and Central Africa in recent years in the hope of reaching Europe. Not all have completed the dangerous journey – opting instead to retrace their steps and return to their families. But going home brings new risks – including being seen by the community as ‘a failure’.
The EU has delivered only three-quarters of a two-year program due to be completed by the end of October. Among those left in limbo are people evacuated from Libya on a promise of resettlement in Europe.
The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR said brutal violence in northern Nigeria has forced thousands of people to flee into neighboring Niger.
Libya is one of the most important transit points for migrants who want to cross the Mediterrean to reach Europe. Many holding camps are run by smugglers and people are subjected to horrendous conditions. DW caught up with survivors of the refugee camp's horrors who managed to escape to Niger, Libya's southern neighbor.
Last week the International Organization for Migration (IOM) hosted a job and training fair for returned migrants in Cote d'Ivoire to help them reintegrate and find work in their home country.
Migrants crossing the Niger desert are at risk of exploitation, violence and death, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which has been providing medical and humanitarian assistance in Niger's Agadez region since August 2018.