Agadez, Niger -
Libya, considered an El Dorado for jobs and money when Muammar Gaddafi
was its “Guide”, has become a terrorist threat in the eyes of people in
northern Niger after two suicide bombings.
“Libya is no longer the country
that fed us. It has turned into a real threat to our peace,” Iliassou, a
motorcycle taxi driver, said in the main northern town of Agadez.
On May 23, a suicide attack on a
large military base in the desert town killed about 20 people, mostly
soldiers. At almost the same moment, a Nigerien employee was killed in
another attack against the French nuclear giant Areva, where it mines
uranium in Arlit, 200km further north.
President Mahamadou Issoufou
blamed Islamic extremists who had crossed into Niger from Libya, the
northern neighbour of the vast sub-Saharan country, for both attacks.
In the ochre dust of the alleys in
Agadez, from the outdoor tea-drinking holes known as “fadas” up to the
market and the famed mosque, residents are talking about what Libya has
become.
“How could such a generous and calm country transform itself into a monster?” asked schoolteacher Alousseini Algabas.
The
chief of the local radio station Sahara FM, Ibrahim Manzo, has his own
answer. “It's the collapse of the Gaddafi regime which has brought us
all these problems,” he said.
Many people in Agadez share
Manzo's nostalgia for Gaddafi, one of Africa's longest-serving despots,
who was killed in October 2011 after an eight-month rebel insurgency.
Under Gaddafi, who both provided
funds for northern Niger and supported Tuareg rebels based around Agadez
from the 1990s, thousands of local people went to work in Libya and
sent money back to their families.
However, Tripoli's new masters
chased many of these labourers out, and they are still doing so. About 1
500 clandestine workers from across west Africa, including many
Nigeriens, arrived in Agadez last weekend. Some wander around the town
like lost souls, nursing hopes of sneaking back across the Libyan
border.
“Before becoming a terrorist sanctuary, Libya helped breast-feed us,” retired police officer Abdou says.
The new Libyan authorities seem
largely powerless to control the whole of their vast territory, though
this week they denied that the country has become a hotbed of terrorists
since armed Islamists were routed from towns in neighbouring northern
Mali.
“The
south of Libya, where anarchy reigns, has become a safe haven for the
terrorists hunted in Mali,” asserts Rhissa Ag Boula, a former Tuareg
rebel chief who has become a counsellor to Niger's president.
“After causing chaos in Mali,
whence they were chased out, the terrorists have taken up refuge in
Libya,” says Mohamed Adjidar, member of an official commission set up to
fight against the proliferation of light arms.
Mohamed Anako, president of the
regional council of Agadez and a veteran of Tuareg uprisings in the
1990s, warns: “In Libya each tribe has its weapons, and that benefits
terrorist groups. At any moment, we could face terrorist attacks.”
Seeing southern Libya as a “real
threat”, Sultan Ibrahim Elhadj Oumarou, the most senior Muslim dignitary
in the city, “calls on the (Nigerien) state to guard this border well”.
“We need to deal with this Libyan
zone before it's too late,” Mohamed Adjidar says, arguing that
otherwise, “a Mali-type scenario could happen here in the north of
Niger.”
Armed Islamist movements seized
control of northern Mali on the back of a Tuareg uprising last year,
before they were driven out of the main towns by a French-led military
intervention that started in January.
“With a
few banknotes, the terrorists could buy local accomplices to help them
carry out their dirty work,” says driver Ahmed Maha.
Anako has launched an appeal on
behalf of the regional council, arguing that Nato, which intervened in
Libya in 2011, and the international community should join hands in
“helping to stabilise Libya”.
During a visit to Niger's capital
Niamey on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged “joint
action” with the Libyan authorities and their neighbours against
“terrorist” groups. - Sapa-AFP
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