Niger: Migrant influx creates food shortage

AGADEZ, 13 May 2009 (IRIN) - As an unusually large influx of migrants cross Niger's Aïr mountains to leave sub-Saharan Africa, food prices in northern Niger have more than tripled and created "dangerous levels of food insecurity", according to regional health authorities.

"I have never seen as many migrants as now. It is worrisome to see so many transiting through Agadez," said the regional public health deputy director, Mamadou Kollo.

Agadez is a popular departure point for migrants travelling to northern Africa and beyond.

"There is now a chronic shortage of food," Kollo told IRIN. "A kilogram of rice in Dirkou that used to cost 60 US cents per kilogram now costs $3." Dirkou is one of the last border posts before reaching Libya, where local residents rely on food deliveries from Agadez, 650km south, and from cities in Libya to the north.

Kollo said migrants have increased both demand and prices for food, which is difficult to transport to desert communes through the mountains.

The governor of Agadez region, which encompasses 15 communes ? some scarcely populated ? passed a decree in March that any large vehicle leaving Agadez with passengers would not be permitted to leave unless it transported food.

The deputy manager at the main departure station in Agadez, Ahmed Koréy, told IRIN that as a result of heightened surveillance of larger vehicles, smaller cars have started transporting migrants through the desert mountains.

He said thousands of migrants have come through the station from January to March, many times more than usual. In March 7,822 travellers registering at the site were from outside Niger.

Migrant testimonies

Agadez governor Abba Mallam Boukar told IRIN the Nigerien government is concerned by the recent increase in numbers of undocumented migrants crossing Niger. During negotiations between Niger and Libya in April to clamp down on clandestine migration, Libya's Interior Minister said 80 percent of clandestine migrants entering Libya come through Niger.

"Only 10 percent of those migrants are from Niger," said Agadez's governor. "We cannot stop youth from travelling through Niger because the majority of them come from countries that belong to the Economic Community of West African States [ECOWAS]." 

Boukar said the majority of the youth who try to enter Libya through Niger do not have travel papers. "But what can we do to stop them?" 

A resident from any of ECOWAS's 15 member states does not require travel authorisation to enter another member state.

At the end of March, an overfilled truck of migrants leaving Agadez broke down and split into two, leading to serious injuries among would-be migrants. One of those on board, who requested anonymity, told IRIN the accident did not change his plans. "I fell from the truck and broke my arm and hurt both feet. I am waiting to heal completely before I continue. There is no question of looking back."

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