Today, the Islamists in Mali have imposed strict Islamic laws reminiscent of the Taliban in Afghanistan, banning television and soccer and ordering women to wear full-length robes. Their harsh justice, enforced by whippings, beatings and executions, has forced tens of thousands of Malians to flee to neighboring countries, including Niger, whose population is already suffering from a severe hunger crisis.
Equally worrisome for Niger is that its own Tuareg separatists have revolted in the past and that al-Qaeda militants are active, kidnapping Westerners. Both groups have potentially easy access to Gaddafi’s weapons, making Niger even more vulnerable to terrorism.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram’s attacks against churches, banks and government institutions in northern Nigeria are triggering economic turmoil in southern Niger. The sudden return of tens of thousands of migrant workers after Libya’s collapse is also adding to the strains on Niger’s economy, potentially creating a new crop of impoverished recruits for Africa’s Islamists.
A recent two-week-long journey to the Mali border and along southern Niger’s frontier with Nigeria revealed how much this landlocked nation is struggling with the threat of militant Islam. “We are under pressure from all sides,” said Niger’s justice minister, Marou Amadou.
Free flow of militants
For the past two months, Yusuga Maiga has watched with concern as the refugee camps near Mali’s border have swollen. As the governor of Tillaberie, one of the regions most affected by the hunger crisis, he’s worried that the new arrivals will tussle with his poor constituents for food and other resources.
But Maiga, who is also a military general, is most concerned about an infiltration of Ansar Dine, whose name in Arabic means “defenders of faith.” The Islamist group, which rules northern Mali, is aligned with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, the terror network’s North and West Africa affiliate. Fighters from both groups, along with other smaller Islamist factions, are across the border, and Maiga has dispatched his soldiers to patrol the area day and night.
Since March, when northern Mali was seized, more than $80 million of the national budget has been diverted to defense and security needs, senior government officials said. The funds, they said, were previously allocated for education, justice, health and social development.
Even so, Maiga conceded that it is difficult to prevent the flow of fighters and weapons. The 510-mile-long border is, in most places, a mere imaginary line in the desert sand, easy to cross unnoticed.
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