Niger condemns Algeria’s violent treatment of Sub-Saharan migrants

Niger government summoned Algeria’s ambassador to protest against the violent treatment suffered by Nigerien migrants who have been suffering rights breaches in southern Algeria.

The showdown is the latest in a series of events that drew the two countries apart, starting from the refusal of Niger’s new leadership of an Algerian mediation in the country.

Niger denounced Algeria for intensifying its crackdown and its “refoulement” of Sub-Saharan migrants including those who had legal status in Algeria.

“Massive police crackdowns have regularly taken place in the city of Tamanrasset where many Sub-Saharan nationals live, including Nigeriens,” said the Niger government.

During these unjustified and xenophobic acts, “many households…particularly those of Nigeriens” were “ransacked by the Algerian police who confiscated all the valuables they could find.”

“In the face of the gravity of the situation,” Niger’s foreign ministry said it summoned the Algerian Ambassador Benkhedda Mehdi to “formally express the protests of the highest Niger authorities against the violent methods used by the Algerian security services in these operations.”

Algeria has been imposing a media blackout on its treatment of African migrants. International rights NGOs have often alerted to the state-embraced racism against Sub-Saharan migrants who have been dumped for decades in the harsh desert on the border with Niger.