This area had until then been sheltered from the jihadist violence that has plagued Niger for years. But in September, gunmen carried out the first attack on a customs post in Malanville (north-east), Benin’s closest town to Niger, killing two people.
Mamane Sani Harouna, who lives on the banks of the river, is categorical: “the terrorists are on the border of the two countries and if they are tracked down in Benin, they will retreat to Niger”.
On the other bank, we see the reflection of the sun on the roofs of houses in Benin.
Wringing his sweat-soaked T-shirt, the fisherman warns: “these are the waters that must be watched, they can facilitate the infiltration of terrorists and around here, there are too many wooded areas” likely to serve as hideouts.
Assimou Abarchi, prefect of Gaya, a department in the Dosso region, bordering Benin and Nigeria, recognizes this: “the security challenge is there, the threat is real”. “But so far, thank God, we sleep well, we wake up well,” he told AFP.
“For the moment it’s calm, there are just small bandits who steal our animals to resell them to butchers”, notes Mariama, calabash on her head, who leaves to sell milk in Benin by crossing on foot the bridge on the Niger River.
Dosso has so far been spared the violence attributed to armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) which have left hundreds dead in the two neighboring regions of Tillabéri and Tahoua (west) close to Mali and from Burkina Faso.
The jihadist attacks have prompted Nigerien operators to shun the roads leading to the port of Abidjan or Lomé via Burkina Faso, in favor of the Dosso corridor, to go and take freight from the Beninese port of Cotonou, according to the unions.
“Because of the security crisis, one of our Lomé-Burkina-Niamey corridors is almost deserted by trucks and this constitutes an obstacle to the mobilization of revenue”, confirmed the Nigerien Minister of Finance, Ahmad Jidoud.
On a visit to Gaya earlier this week, Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum expressed concern about a possible deterioration in security in this area.
As a preventive measure, he promised to create a military battalion in Gaya “equipped with all the means”, in order to monitor the 266 km of Niger-Benin border.
– Supply zone for jihadists –
“Benin is a strategic partner for Niger,” he assured. “When we know the actions of these forces (jihadists) and their desire to open fronts on the other side (Beninese), we are summoned to warn” and therefore “to deploy” on this border, added the leader. of the State before commanders of the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) in Dosso.
Especially since Niamey is building, in partnership with China, a giant pipeline – the largest in Africa – to export its crude oil from July 2023 via Benin, in order to compensate for the loss of revenue caused by the fall in oil prices. uranium of which it is a major producer.
Niamey and Cotonou signed “an agreement” in mid-July to fight against “terrorism”, providing in particular for an exchange of intelligence and joint military operations.
Mohamed Bazoum lamented that the Dosso region is being used as a corridor for “supplying fuel and logistics to terrorists” based in Mali, using motorcycles and canoes, urging the regular forces to “find a good response” to “cut” them from this source.
“Motorcyclists sneak from Nigeria to northern Mali and canoes involved in smuggling are equipped with powerful engines,” an official based in Gaya told AFP.
Dosso has a special intervention battalion with more than 500 men, the elements of which have been trained by the French forces and Paris has even equipped it with pick-up vehicles and heavy weapons.
