Niger halts plan to deport Arabs
2006-10-30 15:34
Niamey - Niger's cabinet on Friday halted a plan to deport thousands of Mahamid Arabs back to Chad after neighbouring countries requested it be stopped.
The West African government had announced on Tuesday that it would expel the nomadic Arabs, who sought refuge in Niger from drought and warfare in Chad during the 1980s. The expulsion plan provoked alarm among the country's broader Arab community.
A government statement said: "The cabinet confirms the halting of the operation to expel Chadian Mahamids, and is giving itself a month to find alternative measures aimed at restoring tranquillity to the (southeast) Diffa region."
A special commission, which would include officials from the ministries of environment, animal resources and interior, was being set up to consider the alternatives.
Expulsions 'should not go ahead'
Niger accused the Mahamid Arabs of possessing illegal firearms and of posing a threat to the security of local communities.
It said their camels had been draining water supplies - a serious cause of tension as the arid Sahel suffered its worst drought on record, leading to conflict between pastoralists and farmers for scarce resources.
Communication minister Oumarou Hadari said certain friendly neighbouring countries, which he didn't name, had intervened to ask that the expulsions should not go ahead.
The government said that while alternatives were being sought, the Mahamid nomads would be free to take their livestock to all of Niger's grazing regions, including Zinder and Agadez.
Hundreds of thousands of Niger citizens lived in other states throughout the region, many in Arab-controlled countries such as Algeria, Libya and Sudan.
Govt sends delegation to Diffa
Nigerien President Mamadou Tandja's government had said the aim of the planned expulsion was purely to tackle illegal immigration and it denied Arabs were being ethnically targeted.
The government estimated that only about 3 000 Mahamid Arabs lived without residence papers in Niger. But, community leaders said the nomads numbered tens of thousands and local government officials put the figure was high as 150 000.
Hadari said the government in Niamey had sent a delegation to Diffa on Friday to meet leaders of the Mahamid community.
Military sources said that in recent days, security forces carried out house-to-house searches and scoured the scrubland for nomads without proper identity papers, who were taken to the town of Kabelewa near the Chadian border to be deported.
The expulsion of the Arabs back to Chad had been due to begin next week.
Political analysts had warned that the expulsions could have a destabilising effect on Chad, which was fighting a long-standing insurgency in its east, which flared again