NIGER: Diffa traders hit by Nigerian border closure

Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN

Millet prices have rocketed in Diffa

DIFFA,  – For generations, Diffa, the arid southeastern corner of Niger, has benefited from being closer to Nigeria than to commercial centres in Niger: Staple grains, fuel, clothing and other items at attractive prices have made their way across the border.

Diffa’s main outputs – livestock, dairy produce and red peppers – have also found a ready market in Nigeria. Common languages and family ties have strengthened links to such an extent that the Nigerian naira is Diffa’s main currency.

But Nigeria’s latest export, Boko Haram militants, is less welcome: It has forced the authorities to close the border, with tragic consequences for Diffa, just as it is trying to deal with the worst drought in recent years.

About three weeks ago, the authorities arrested 15 people suspected of affiliation to Boko Haram, seized home-made explosives and grenades, and uncovered a plan to bomb several public places in Diffa, said Tinni Djibo, assistant secretary-general of Diffa.

Since then, the price of staple grains like millet has doubled, while livestock prices have plummeted at a time when the region’s villages and pastoral camps are struggling with drought-related food insecurity.

“We realize the negative impact the border closure has had, but we have to put out the fires in our house when our neighbour is trying to put out the fire in its house,” said Djibo.

He said that whenever members of Boko Haram, whose reported base (Maiduguri), is only about 130km south of Diffa, have felt the heat, they have rushed up to Niger. “We have information that they have been trying to set up cells in Diffa.”

Camel traders hit

Diffa residents, meanwhile, are finding it hard to comprehend the official line. Malammamane Nur, the elderly leader of a Tobou community, one of the major pastoral groups in Niger, told IRIN in Medelaram village, some 30km outside Diffa town: “Boko Haram is like distant thunder – we hear about them but don’t see them – where is this Boko Haram?”

Boko Haram is like distant thunder – we hear about them but don’t see them – where is this Boko Haram?

For three weeks his people have been unable to sell their camels at N’guel Kolo, one of the biggest livestock markets in the region, as buyers from Nigeria failed to turn up. The earnings would have helped them stock up on food for their families and animals. “We have a long time ahead still without food [another four months before rain; the next harvest is expected in November],” said Nur.

The pastoralists will now have to settle for 1,250,000 CFA francs (US$2,500) for a camel, if they manage to find buyers in Diffa, whereas Nigerian traders would have paid almost double that. “We need that kind of profit now when times are hard,” said Nur.

People will run out of food by April, according to government assessments, said Theodore Mbainaissem, head of World Food Programme (WFP) operations in Diffa.

In Diffa town’s livestock market there is an air of desolation: “Fewer and fewer people are bringing their animals here, because of the border closure. The price of sheep has dropped by 60 percent,” said Yousufa Bukar, a seller, who said he urgently needs cash to buy food. The more optimistic are holding on to their animals hoping that the border might reopen.

The Diffa region is facing a third consecutive year of drought. Many people have lost all their cows and only have a few sheep and goats; some people have a few camels. Agricultural output is the lowest in the past three years. Some farmers who grow peppers on the banks of the River Koumadougou-Yobe, which serves as the border between Niger and Nigeria, have not had a good harvest as their crop was ravaged by insects. For many, food has become unaffordable.

In normal times, money from the sale of a goat could have purchased three 100kg bags of millet. Now you need to sell three goats to get a single bag, said Hadjara Abdou, an officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Diffa.

Photo: ReliefWeb

Map showing Diffa in Niger

Cereal prices are linked to fuel prices, said WFP’s Mbainaissem. The price of diesel has always been lower in Diffa than elsewhere in Niger because of informal imports of diesel from Nigeria. “Since the closure of the border the price has gone up by almost 200 CFA francs (40 US cents) a litre, and this has affected the price of all commodities.”

Humanitarian agencies based in Diffa also say Boko Haram poses a direct threat: “We are considering relocating our offices away from the main road as we think we are obvious targets,” said one agency head.

Help on its way?

The authorities and aid agencies say help is on its way: Djibo said the government will be providing millet and sorghum at half the market price to people in Diffa. Feed for animals is also planned. Whether this assistance will be sufficient for eight months, no one can say. “We will get a real picture in April,” said an aid worker.

One aid official IRIN spoke to called for better roads to connect Diffa to other areas of Niger, but the links with Nigeria are “deeper than that and are social”, said Djibo. “We have to accept it.”

The Niger government’s Vulnerable Populations Support Plan dated February 2012, said a November 2011 survey indicated that in rural areas 32.1 percent of households were food insecure, 25.8 percent moderately food insecure and 6.3 percent severely food insecure.

For the severely food insecure the government is planning various cash transfer, cash-for-work, and food-for-work programmes, as well as the free distribution of food. Overall, Niger has 5,458,871 food insecure people, the report said.

jk/cb source www.irinnews.org

BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Refugees face mounting pressure to go home

Photo: IRIN

Reluctant: only a few hundred Burundian refugees returned home from Tanzania in 2011 (file photo)

DAR ES SALAAM/BUJUMBURA, – Pressure is mounting on tens of thousands of Burundian nationals who fled to Tanzania during the civil war in the early 1990s to return home, despite their reluctance to leave.

Burundi’s civil war ended in 2005 but it remains in a state of acrimonious political deadlock, with widespread reports of assassinations and human rights abuses since elections in 2010. 

After several postponed deadlines since 2009, Mtabila camp, in western Tanzania and home to almost 38,000 Burundians, is set to close at end-2012, with repatriations scheduled to take place between April and November, according to an agreement reached by both countries and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Following a detailed questionnaire conducted by UNHCR and Tanzanian officials in December 2011, 33,708 refugees in Mtabila were found to be “not in need of international protection”.

In the absence of a successful appeal against this unprecedented determination, those who “are unwilling, without justifiable grounds, to return to Burundi, will find themselves liable to be dealt with under relevant Tanzanian laws, including those for immigration control and management”, according to the communiqué released on 22 February after the tripartite meeting.

Tanzania has hosted tens of thousands of refugees from Burundi over the past four decades, but is now “resolute” that the camp will close at the end of this year.

UNHCR Burundi representative Clementine Nkweta–Salami said after the meeting in Bujumbura that the reasons most Mtabila residents gave for not wanting to return to Burundi “were not based on the international [refugee] convention”.

“That is why we are going to focus our efforts on persuading them to return in security and dignity. We do not want a situation where they are forced out but they must understand that refugee status is not indefinite and if they do not have well-founded reasons they must reflect and return home,” she said.

Photo: UNHCR

Incentive: Burundi has been urged to improve educational facilities for returning refugee children

Burundi’s Minister of National Solidarity, Human Rights and Gender, Clotilde Niragira, said: “A person who fled in 1993 cannot refuse to return because of security. Even if there are still problems, the country is safe.”

Information campaign

Despite UNHCR’s offer of assistance and cash incentives, just a few hundred Burundian refugees returned from Tanzania in 2011.

In an effort to accelerate the process, government ministers are set to visit the camp in March as part of a “mass information campaign”.

If they lose the right to stay as refugees in Tanzania, those in Mtabila will have little option but to return to Burundi. Tanzania has indicated it will not extend to them a naturalization process benefiting some 160,000 Burundians in the country as a result of the 1973 influx.

Opportunities for resettlement elsewhere are limited to any places offered by third countries via UNHCR.

For many in Mtabila, fear of insecurity and the prospect of having no land seem to be the main reasons for the reluctance to return.

“If I repatriate I will be killed because the authorities that rule the country today think that whoever did not repatriate before is on the side of those who are in opposition, those who fight the government,” one female Mtabila resident told International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) during an investigation into conditions in the camp.

IRRI’s report said income-generating opportunities, education facilities, sanitation, water and freedom of movement had been significantly restricted in Mtabila.

Theo Mbazumutima of Rema Ministries, a Christian NGO working with refugees, said of those in the camp: “They are still hoping this latest wasn’t the final [decision,] because in the past the authorities have not kept to their deadlines.

“Last time they didn’t take them back by force and they’re hoping these are just threats. I don’t think so. This is genuine,” he said.

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 source www.irinnews.org

MALI: Refugee, IDP numbers rise as fighting continues in north

Photo: H.Caux/UNHCR

A refugee woman and her daughter at the Sinegodar refugee site, Niger. They fled the town of Anderboukane in northern Mali in January in anticipation of fighting between the army and Tuareg fighters

DAKAR,  – Refugee numbers are rising daily in countries bordering Mali as fighting rages between the Malian army and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), which is fighting for greater autonomy for the Tuareg.

There are also tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) within Mali.

A US$35.6 million appeal is being launched today, said Helene Caux, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) senior regional public information officer on 23 February, to deal with “the Mali displacement”.

Burkina Faso

The Burkina Faso Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation said that by 21 February there were 16,299 Malian Tuareg refugees in the country. By 23 February that figure had reached 17,499.

The bulk of arrivals entered the country at Tina-koff, Inabao and Deou in the northern province of Oudalan. The rest are in nine other provinces. They are being hosted by individual families or by communities, and some by families in the capital, Ouagadougou. However, the ministry says, most are in sites in the Sahel Region: at Mentao in Soum Province and Inabao and Gandafabou in Oudalan Province.

The government has identified two sites in the regions of Goudebo and Ingan to set up refugee camps.

Initially, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has distributed energy biscuits, kitchen kits and blankets; the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization are providing medicines and water purification; UNHCR has provided 500 tents drawn from stockpiles in Douala, Cameroon, and is coordinating the response.

Niger

By 23 February, 28,858 refugees had arrived in Niger since the fighting began in January. These include citizens of Niger, some of whom had lived in Mali for several years. Here, too, locals have been helping the refugees. The government has provided food and local NGO PLAN Niger has also been providing support.

“There has been an initial response from the Niger government that has been quick,” Caux said.

Forty tons of non-food items have arrived from UNHCR’s stockpile in Accra, Ghana. The first distribution took place on 22 February in Ayorou District, Tillaberi Province. UNHCR has made distributions to 302 households at a site in Gaoudel, Ayorou.

“This is mostly blankets and plastic sheeting because it is cold right now,” Caux said.

On 16 February, UNHCR received 2,000 family tents which will be distributed as soon as the refugees are encamped. Each tent can accommodate six people.

Initial distributions were made at the border. Right now some refugees such as those at Sinegodar village are just 8km from the border. The UNHCR standard is to have people at least 50km from a border.

Sinegodar hosts some 8,000 refugees, many of whom crossed over from nearby Malian villages. They are housed in makeshift shelters. Mangaize village also hosts refugees, many of whom know it as it is a large cattle market they used to frequent.

Photo: H.Caux/UNHCR

A Malian refugee woman in Mangaize, northern Niger, ponders her future. In January, she and her family fled Menaka, a town in Mali, because of the general insecurity and fighting between the army and Tuareg fighters

Ayorou and Abala districts are hosting refugees. All these places are in Tillaberi Region.

The government has indentified a site for the refugees at Ouallam, about 100km north of Niamey, but it will take two weeks to finish setting up the camp.

“We might need one or two other sites,” Caux said.

The initial condition of refugees is not bad but the fear is that if the situation lasts, problems could arise because of the makeshift nature of the shelters. Children could suffer from respiratory and other ailments.

Niger is one of the poorest countries in the region and is, like several Sahel countries, affected by a severe drought. Aid agencies require more for their operations in this region – a fact that is often overlooked.

“We need funding because the crisis unfolded so quickly. It’s hard to attract funding because we are competing with places like Somalia,” Caux said.

UNCHR will begin registration of refugees today at the border village at Mangaize, and will then move to other areas.

Mauritania, Algeria

Thousands of people fleeing the fighting in Lere, west-central Mali, are being cared for in the Mauritanian centres of Fessala and Hodh el Charghi. A camp at Mbera established for Tuareg refugees in the 1990s is being rehabilitated. UNHCR says the site has several water points and structures designed to serve as schools and health centres.

Fighting has been reported recently in the northeastern Malian areas of Tessalit and Tinezewadern. Refugees have been reported in Algeria.

Mali IDPs

The International Committee of the Red Cross says in northern Mali people have abandoned their homes and fields and lost their livestock. Many families are living under trees or out in the open.

At least 61,400 have been displaced from Menaka, Aguelhoc, Tessalit, Inhalid, Niafunke and Lere. Because of the drought in the Sahel, food supplies are limited in markets and prices high.

ICRC says the greatest need for the displaced is access to safe drinking water. There is also a shortage of pasture. In Menaka, in Gao Region, the main activities are animal breeding and farming.

Fighting

The fighting began on 17 January with battles in Inhalid, Tessalit, Tin-Zaouaten, Aguel Hoc, Menaka, Anderanboukan, Hombori, Nyafunke and Lere – all in the northern half of Mali.

The MNLA says it wants “to free the Azawad people from the illegal occupation of Azawadan territory held by Mali” and hold a referendum to determine if Azawadians want a separate independent republic.

The Malian government says it is fighting the MNLA and elements of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb to keep its territorial integrity. The MNLA and the Malian government each say atrocities were committed by the other side.

Algeria, France and the USA have called for an end to the fighting. However, at a two-day summit in February the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Mali is a member, condemned the MNLA rebellion and expressed full backing for Mali in defending its territorial integrity.

On the humanitarian front, on 16 February ECOWAS and the UN Security Council approved US$3 million for victims of the food crisis and rebel attacks in the Sahel-Sahara region of West Africa.

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source www.irinnews.org