2023-08-04 06:00:05
Spaniard with origins in Guinea Konakry, 47-year-old economist manager, the head of the Red Cross delegation in Niger He is a direct connoisseur of one of the harshest realities in Africa. Zakaria Camara He lives in an enclave on the planet that is the confluence point of jihadist terrorism, the worst of the climate crisis, and the wave of sub-Saharan immigration to the north.
When he speaks to this newspaper from Niaymey, the first concern is to underline that The situation in the country “is not as it appears in the foreign press.” Try not to spread the alarm, that an excessive political tension do not tear down the precarious framework of humanitarian aid over a mass of needy; Nigerians, but also foreign refugees and migrants passing through.
“The situation is calm. In the street people live their lives, continue with your occupations. The shops and banks are open, and the market works normally -he explains-. And the information that comes to us from other large cities is the same. Yes, there is a curfew from twelve at night until five in the morning. But the foreign media broadcast information that does not reflect the reality on the ground. Here at the moment life is completely normal ”.
But there are already details of the deterioration of the situation…
Yes, we are noticing the rise in some staple foods, such as rice, due to the closure of borders. Niger’s food supply normally comes from Nigeria, but the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) summit has decided to close the borders, and that impacts the country’s economy. Before the closure, a 25-kilo bag of rice cost 10,000 CFA francs (15.23 euros). Now it costs 12,500 (€19).
If the situation is so calm, why do so many Westerners need to leave the country?
It is a strictly political situation, and I cannot give you any explanations about that, yes about the humanitarian situation but not about the politics, because at the Red Cross we have a mandate of neutrality. Those countries have made that decision to evacuate because they will have made an analysis of the situation that will have led them to do so. But leaving here is not mandatory, it is voluntary.
Are your collaborators not in danger?
We carry out a prior security analysis so as not to expose our workers, who number 59. We are here to support the population most in need, and neither in the peri-urban area of Niamey nor in the Maradi, Tahoua and Tillari regions, where we work, the Red Cross has stopped none of its activities. Now there is a coup, but Niger had already had its weaknesses for ten years, in a situation of extreme vulnerability, with a war against jihadism on the border and a tremendous climatic situation, which causes an annual displacement of a volume that was out of here you can not imagine.
A human wave…
A large number of people flee from these realities, they come from Mali and other countries, and that overwhelms the reception capacity of this country. With an increasing number of refugees, the situation deteriorates further. But for the moment, based on the analysis of the security context that we carry out, which is very careful, we believe that the situation is not enough to evacuate our workers.
What is the person you help in Niger like?
More than half of the Spanish Red Cross beneficiaries here are women. We arrived at a town, we first found out about the needs, and we gathered the women together; We invite them to organize themselves in groups of between 20 and 30 so that they are the main actors of change in their communities. We help them to change their mentality about hygiene, for example. But we also organize men’s schools for this change of mentality. Here are men who are convinced that women can contribute something to society and can participate in decision-making.
But it is the woman who is the main target of action.
Here many women have the tremendous problem of not knowing how to read or write. For example, they own the land by inheritance, but they do not know how to read the documentation; they give their papers to a man. There is polygamy in this country. The man puts those papers in his name… and in the end the woman lacks rights and property. We help them with that, and we also teach them to cook in a way that is more nutritious for their children, and to run their small business, and to function in a cooperative, to lend each other money, to invest profits in the association… This is a country of working women : They are the ones who get up the earliest and the last to go to bed.
But first they always find out about the needs of each community, he told me.
Yes. For example, the town frequently does not have access to water, and that is the main problem. We help to look for it, and then we provide knowledge to the women in hygiene measures to conserve and transport the water from the well to the house. We do all this with the accompaniment of the Government through its departmental directorates. But it depends on the area. Tahoua, for example, is a region with a large flow of emigrants, and there we focus on immigration projects. And we also work on similar projects with Malian refugees in the country.
The Tahoua – Agadez axis is key, one of the points most crossed by emigrants in the world…
Agadez is the gate to the north. Most of those who pass stop in Libya or Algeria. And half of all those people going up go through Tahoua. The country’s legislation is very restrictive, and that makes migrants put their lives at greater risk. Before having to go to the center of the city to ask for medical help, what we do is go to them, in the outskirts, the places where they feel safe. There we take our mobile clinic to give them medical and psychosocial assistance. And advice on the risks of migration. Especially in Niger, with this climate, which keeps the temperature constantly above 40 degrees…
What ailments does a trans-Saharan emigrant who comes into their hands present?
Most arrive with symptoms of heat stroke. And in times of malaria there are many who suffer from it, and others suffer from foodborne infection. In addition, they are people who need to tell about the traumas they have experienced on the migratory route. They arrive in a weak state of mind. We have a team of psychologists who talk to them.
With the coup d’état and the closure of borders, the entry of materials that you need may be restricted.
Yes, it is a possibility. But generally we tend to favor local purchase. Half of the materials we use are from the town where we work. If there are border closures, it obviously has an impact on the activity, due to a lack of material or an increase in prices. The price of water, for example, has a considerable impact. A rise increases the number of people in a state of vulnerability. And if the political situation worsens, the humanitarian situation worsens even more.
How much does a bottle of water cost today in Niger?
One liter and a half, 85 cents. It’s 550 francs. Half the people can’t afford that. What they do is take the water from the well and filter it through a cloth, or take a tablet to purify it. Half of this country is desert, and in small towns it is very difficult to get drinking water.
Could the current situation in Niger cause a wave of refugees out of the country?
If there is no remedy for the political situation, the humanitarian situation is going to get much worse. Niger receives refugees, and is a point of reception and departure for emigrants. And with the border at war, many displaced people from other countries arrive. The border is the hottest area of the Sahel. If political instability is added to all this, the situation worsens even more.
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What do they need most urgently?
It is very important that the media do not exaggerate. They are transmitting that everything is very, very bad and that you have to get out as it is, and that is not what happens. That alarm can discourage donors, make them doubt whether their money will arrive. And if they don’t finance aid projects, half the population of this country is left without resources. It is a very complex political situation. We need calm so that the poorest people do not have to leave Niger. We need to lower the tension so these people can breathe a little.
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