WorldcrunchStay updated with comprehensive news on Niger from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on Nigerien politics, economic strategies, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include Niamey, Nigerien history, and cultural festivals.
A recent video of a woman being tortured in Libyan refugee camps is further proof that agreements signed by the EU and Italy with Libyan and Tunisian authorities are doing more harm than good. But the work of associations like Refugees in Libya shows that there is still some hope for the future, writes Don Mattia Ferrari, a Catholic priest who works closely with these NGOs.
By pushing out French troops and welcoming Russians, countries in the west African region of Sahel had hoped for autonomy and stability. They’ve gotten death and chaos instead.
Armed conflicts, droughts, floods, poverty… Many factors are pushing some young people from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to take uncertain and dangerous migration routes. In the region of Africa just south of the Sahara, unregulated migration is increasing.
In the Agadez region of Niger, thousands of migrants — many of them children — are waiting in squalid conditions, and at risk of human trafficking, after being turned away from Algeria.
Since the West has largely abandoned the fight against terror in the region, Russia’s hour seems to have come. Until now, the transit country for migration has wavered as to whether it should break with the EU and turn to Moscow. A new deal is now sending a clear signal.
Mali’s “mysterious city” welcomes a new class of students trained in looking after ancient books. From conservation to digitization of these works, a colossal task awaits them to preserve this endangered heritage and the secrets they contain.
Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday evening the recall of the French ambassador to Niger, and the departure of the 1,500 French soldiers stationed there: the end of a dangerous impasse. France is being forced to wholly review its African policy.
Wagner PMC has built up a powerful network on the African continent. It’s one of the mercenary group’s greatest assets — and now, a Kremlin takeover of Wagner could even strengthen its influence in Africa, including through the recent coups d’état in Niger and Gabon.
Just days after the military seized power in Niger last week, the new junta has already been the target of sanctions by Brussels and Washington. What that means for the 1,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in Niger, among other things, remains unclear.
Even as it celebrates this year’s literature prize going to Tanzanian author Abdulrazak Gurnah, Africa is again completely absent from the list of Nobel winners in science. In research as elsewhere, money is the key.
AGADEZ — Mahamane Ousmane is an unrepentant people smuggler. He makes no effort to deny having transported migrants “countless times’ across the Sahara into Libya. When he is released from prison in Niger’s desert city of Agadez, he intends to return to the same work. The 32-year-old is even more adamant he has done nothing wrong. “I don’t like criminals. I am no thief. I have killed no one,” he says. As Ousmane speaks, a small circle of fellow inmates in filthy football shirts and flip-flops murmur in agreement. The prison at Agadez, where the French once stabled their horses […]
NIAMEY – The small restaurant sits on the corner of two sandy streets in Niger’s capital city, Niamey. It is here, at Le Toulousain, that two Frenchmen were kidnapped by AQIM (Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb) on Jan. 7, 2011. The two young hostages – an aid worker and his friend – were killed during […]