Increasing Boko Haram violence in northern Nigeria has led to mass displacement in neighboring Niger. Some 200,000 Nigerians have fled since 2018. The rising instability in the entire Sahel region has created an alarming lawless vacuum creating hotbeds for Islamic Jihadist insurgents and marauding local militias which, in turn, has left millions of civilians vulnerable as the unrest grows.
December 11, 2019. Flying over the dry savanna desert of southern Niger, rough sand tracks snake off into the distance. This now-volatile region has become, for the most part, lawless and overrun by militants and armed groups who steal and sell livestock. During 2019, over 400 civilians were killed in skirmishes and border violence in the Diffa province alone.
In the local Governor's residence in Diffa in eastern Niger, a security guard stands under a series of framed images of former Diffa governors.
Niger Army soldiers on security patrol in Niger's toriubled western region.of Tillaberi. The lawless borders with Niger and Mali continue to be hotbeds for Islamic Jihadist insurgents and marauding local militias who, in the last few months, have attacked and killed over 250 soldiers from the Niger Army. December 14, 2019.
Extensive flooding in the Diffa region during spring 2019 left thousands homeless. Local officials said the Komadougou river in Eastern Niger broke its banks in early October, forcing 23,000 people to flee their homes in the Diffa area. 57 deaths were reported by UN/OCHA. Many are now living in IDP and refugee settlements in the outskirts of Diffa.
December 11, 2019.
At a security checkpoint in the western Niger town of Diffa, cars and pedestrians wait to be waved through. Over 400 civilians have been killed in militant attacks in the Diffa region since 2017. December 11, 2019. Niger Army Soldiers on patrol near the Nigerian Border.
At a security checkpoint in the western Niger town of Diffa, cars and pedestrians wait to be waved through. Over 400 civilians have been killed in militant attacks in the Diffa region since 2017.
Niger Army soldier takes a breather during security patrol near the Nigerian border in Maradi State. The lawless borders with Nigeria and Mali continue to be hotbeds for Islamic Jihadist insurgents and marauding local militias who, in the last few months, have attacked and killed over 250 soldiers from the Niger Army.
December 12, 2019.
A refugees hand on the perimeter fence of Tillaberi Refugee settlement located some 50 miles from Niger's capital of Niamey. According to UN officials, there are over half a million refugees now residing in Niger having fled conflict and drought in neighboring Sahel countries.
December 13 2019.
A hospital worker distributes food for mothers and children at Maradi regional hospital. According to UNICEF, malnutrition is a major threat to children's health and development in Niger with 15.0 per cent of children are acutely malnourished in Niger (unchanged since 2006). Micronutrient deficiencies are rampant, and more than 70 per cent of children under 5 are anemic.
Nigerian refugee women at the growing Awaridi refugee settlement now home to 9,000 plus mostly northern Nigerians who fled violience over the past 18 months. Photo by Giles Clarke
A married refugee couple from Darfur stand outside their shelter in Tillaberi refugee settlement in Niger. They were recently reunited following a traumatic experience in Libya where they were separated and imprisoned for 18 months.
In Darfur, they were primary school teachers but fled their village after an attack in January 2017. They were married just one month earlier in December 2016.
In Libya, she was held in various detention centers in the south of Tripoli before being safely repatriated to Niger by UNHCR and IOM (International Organization for Migration).
A few months later he was released from prison and was also given safe IOM passage to Niger where they were both finally reunited after almost two years apart.
Identities are withheld for protection.
A young Nigerian refugee girl wearing a small portable solar panel enabling her to remain in contact with her family as she collects food and water throughout the day.
She and her family fled to Niger from northern Nigeria after Boko Harem violence overran their village in March 2019. December 11, 2019.
A herdsman from northern Nigeria who now lives in the sprawling Awaradi camp near Diffa in southern Niger. He escaped across the border into Niger after losing his livestock to militants in late 2018.
The recent surge in numbers seeking safety in Niger has ballooned since 2016 mostly due to the rise in Islamic militant attacks in the border regions of neighboring Nigeria, Chad and Mali.
According to UNHCR, over 450,000 refugees have fled the growing Sahel region violence and settled in Niger over the past two years.
Aboucar Malam Madou, 59, is a farmer from northern Nigeria who fled Boko Haram violence in 2016. He now lives in the sprawling Awaradi refugee settlement with over 9,000 other refugees. The recent surge in numbers seeking safety in Niger has ballooned mostly due to the rise in Islamic militant attacks in the border regions of neighboring Nigeria, Chad and Mali.
According to UNHCR, in the past five years over 400,000 refugees have settled in Niger with around 70% of those having arrived from the troubled region of northern Nigeria.
December 11th, 2019.
A young Nigerien mother stands with her crying baby while awaiting treatment at a chronic malnutrition ward in Maradi hospital, Niger. One in five children in Niger suffer from malnutrition. According to the organization Save the Children, Niger has the world's highest infant mortality rate.
December 11, 2019.
Maradi regional hospital. A young mother, who lives in a small rural village 4 hours from the hospital, holds her baby who is suffering from acute malnutrition
Tillaberi, Niger ~ A young Nigerian girl who fled Boko Harem violence in northern Nigeria now living in a UNHCR-supported refugee settlement 60 km west of Niamey in Niger. withheld for security & protection.
A former 'child soldier' who was previously associated with armed militia groups in the Sahel region now lives in a safe house in Niger's capital of Niamey with some 40 others. They are now given sanctuary and education having either escaped or rescued from groups such as Boko Haram or one of the many Jihadist Islamic militias operating along Niger's violent border. Identity withheld for protection purposes.
December 13 2019.
Niger Army soldiers on security patrol in Niger's toriubled western region.of Tillaberi. The lawless borders with Niger and Mali continue to be hotbeds for Islamic Jihadist insurgents and marauding local militias who, in the last few months, have attacked and killed over 250 soldiers from the Niger Army.
An aircraft belonging to WFP, the World Food Program, prepares for an early morning take-off from Niamey Airport in Western Niger. Niger is a landlocked country in the Sahel region facing a massive food deficit. Its population of 18 million people is growing at 4 percent a year, one of the highest rates in the world. Growing militant violence hampers food and aid distribution for WFP and other agencies/NGO organizations battling to stem the spiraling poverty in Niger today.
December 11, 2019.
Nigerien Army troops on patrol near the Nigerian border in South Niger. Photo by Giles Clark