Some 20 people have died and several others were injured on Monday during a scramble in Diffa in southeastern Niger during a distribution of food and money to Nigerian refugees.
By Assane Seydou
The stampede was sparked, according to local sources, by a massive influx of Nigerian refugees who went to the ‘Youth and Culture House’ (MJC) on Monday morning in the hope of receiving food aid granted by the governor of Nigeria’s Borno State which borders the town of Diffa in Niger.
The latter was visiting Diffa to inquire about the living conditions of Nigerians who had found refuge in Niger.
According to medical and humanitarian sources, the victims were mainly women and children.
The Nigerian refugees estimated at some 120,000 people, fled the violence of the militant group Boko Haram, which has been raging in the northeast of the country for over a decade.
Speaking in the Hausa language broadcast on Radio France Internationale (Rfi), the governor of Borno, Babagana Oumara Zulum, announced that he had started talks with the Nigerien authorities with a view to repatriating the refugees who had fled and are now scattered between Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
AS/cgd/fss/as/APA