October 2008

Small West African Country Faces Big Problems

By Steven J. Moss


 Armed conflict in Niger’s mountainous desert continues to disrupt agricultural and educational activities, with more than 10,000 people displaced by sporadic fighting. Surrounded by their dying fields, Air Mountains residents must travel more than 100 kilometers to market towns to buy food; when they do, they face banditry, anti-vehicular landmines, military patrols, and sporadic rebel attacks.

     Since rebels re-launched a decades-old desert conflict last year, demanding more community investment and mining revenue from resource-rich pockets of the desert, food has become a rare commodity in the mountains.  “There used to be at least 300 gardens, primarily in Iferouane, Tin Teloost and Ebourkoum,” said a tribal leader, who has been displaced by fighting, but continues to live in the Air Mountains.  “Since the conflict began, it is almost impossible to get gasoline to keep the gardens’ motor pumps operating. There are only a few working gardens left in Tin Teloost. This is our second year of not producing a harvest in the mountains.”

The conflict has led thousands of students to drop out of school, according to the Agadez regional government.  Almost 30 out of roughly 370 schools in northern Niger, affecting more than 2,000 students, have been shuttered.  Many of the displaced students are entering their second year of missed classes, in a country where only 12 percent of women and 18 percent of men are able to read by age 24.

According to the mayor of Agadez – one of the largest towns in Niger’s north – Abdoulaye Hama, the military has rationed petroleum sales since the conflict broke out to prevent fuel from falling into the hands of rebels or bandits.  As a result, exports of the region’s primary crop, onions, have plummeted.  Fifty kilogram of onions used to cost up to $29; now that amount sells for roughly $3. “Not enough to even cover the farmers’ costs,” lamented Hama.

International humanitarian aid and food assistance from the national food bank must go through the regional Agadez government, which then sends the military-escorted delivery to the mountains through a network of elected mayors, tribal chiefs and religious leaders.   According to the Agadez governor’s coordinator of humanitarian deliveries, Harouna Oumanou Bayero, rebels haven’t attempted to block food deliveries. “This food is going to help their population, their families. There may be some bandits who try to take advantage of the conflict to carry out petty crime near the cities, but they do not dare to attack in the bush, knowing that they will then have to face the rebels.”   However, earlier this summer the governor’s office said bandits stole a truck transporting government food stock headed to the mountains on the paved road from Agadez.

According to 27 year old Amoumene (not his real name), who fled the fighting last Fall, coming south to Agadez,   “I came here because a man of my age who is in the mountains will be suspected of being a rebel. I could have been picked up or targeted by the government at any minute. I could not join the rebellion because I am the oldest son and if I die, who will take care of my family?”

     “I had an onion garden five kilometers south of Iferouane. I had put all my money into the planting because I expected to sell my onions and use the earnings to get married. But I could not stay because of the violence.”

     “During combat in November [2007], I fled with a camel herder. We travelled two days before we arrived to Agadez. I have been trying to find work for the past nine months. I go to the center where employers search for workers, but they all want people with schooling. I have never been to school.

     “I am upset now that my parents never put me in school, but I know they needed me at home to help. I cannot go home because I have nothing to offer my family. I cannot stay here if I cannot even make money to cover rice?”

     “And as a Tuareg, I know that anytime there is an explosion or combat, no matter how far away, people look at me with suspicion. Sometimes, I think I am close to losing my mind. I wake up afraid a mine will go off- anywhere.”

            “I just want peace to return. I want to see my garden and afford to marry and get on with my life. I would never think about trying to go far away to look for work like some people who escape at sea to Europe. Nomads are too attached to the desert. If I am desperate enough, I will go through the mountains into Libya or Algeria.”

     “But I am too tired to even do that.”

This article is based on news and analysis from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.  Steven Moss made multiple trips to Niger as part of a U.S. Treasury Department-sponsored government reform effort in 2006 and 2007.

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