Last month we published some extracts from Jérôme Tubiana’s article posted on IRIN website: The dangerous fiction of Darfur’s peace.
Now the independent researcher on Sudan, South Sudan, and Chad has posted a new article on migrants smugglers between Niger and Libya, detailing how the migration to Europe is organized: Europe’s “Migrant Hunters”, Letter From Agadez:
The checkpoint on the way out of the Saharan town of Agadez in Niger is nothing more than a long metal chain that stretches across the road. On a Monday afternoon in March, a handful of pickup trucks and lorries loaded with migrants mostly from southern Niger waited quietly at the barrier to embark on the long journey up through the Ténéré desert. An overweight officer inspected the vehicles and then invited the drivers to show him their paperwork inside a somber-looking shack on the side of the road, where money most likely changed hands.
Every Monday afternoon a convoy, protected by an escort of three military pickups, two mounted with machine guns, begins its arduous journey toward Dirkou, 435 miles away, on the road to the Libyan border. Protection has long been needed against highwaymen—or, as they’re called locally, coupeurs de route. These disgruntled Tuareg youths and former rebels roam the foothills of the Aïr Mountains just beyond Agadez…
You can read the full post on Foreign Affairs website.
