In Niger, a compass to navigate the IDP crisis
In Niger, a compass to navigate the IDP crisis
The number of IDPs almost doubled in the Tillaberi and Tahoua regions, located near the Malian border, during the past year. In order to provide an effective response to their needs, UNHCR works with local “protection monitors”, to support incident reporting and analysis of trends affecting the displaced population.
“In my village, on the border with Mali, armed men extorted our cattle and killed our leaders to make us leave”, explains Rissa Djibril*, a 40-year-old father of six. “I had no job at the time. The armed groups approached me to take part in the looting and crimes against the population. When I refused, they sent me death threats and also threatened to kidnap my wife and my children. I had to flee and decided to come here, in Intikane, where I can get the help of the State and UNHCR.”
Rissa arrived in the refugee hosting area of Intikane, in the Tahoua region, in December 2019. He was one of the first IDPs to settle there, alongside some 20,000 Malian refugees who were already living on the site. Today, there are 15,000 IDPs in Intikane.
Over the past year, the security situation has seriously deteriorated in the Tillaberi and Tahoua regions which border Mali and Burkina Faso. The population has faced intimidation, extortion and kidnappings due to increased attacks by Jihadists groups in the area. Several community leaders have been assassinated. As a consequence, the number of IDPs has jumped from 78,000 in late 2019 to 137,000 at the end of 2020. Nowadays, tens of thousands took refuge in places like Intikane, where they benefit from UNHCR’s support.
During the same period, armed groups have carried out attacks, increasingly encroaching into Niger’s territory.
On 31 May 2020, fifty armed men stormed Intikane, located some 70 kilometres from the Malian border. They killed two refugee leaders and a local traditional leader, destroyed the water supply system, the phone antenna and burnt warehouses.
“They were shooting just outside our door”, tells Rissa. “My wife and I grabbed our children to protect them. They saw people crying, fleeing. Even animals were running around: it was like a war movie scene.” His seven-year-old daughter, Tounfa, fell unconscious. The armed men told them to leave. The next day, Rissa and his family, as some 7,000 IDPs from this region, fled to Telemces, 25 kilometres away, where they received UNHCR’s support.
In 2020, the Agency delivered emergency shelters to 30,429 IDPs in the regions of Tillabéri and Tahoua, covering 22% of the total needs. UNHCR’s operational assistance is provided in contexts where IDPs benefit of services initially created for refugees such as food, water, health, education, cash-based interventions and vocational training. A year ago, there where almost no IDPs living close to the refugee sites. Today, almost half of them have settled on or near these sites and receive UNHCR’s assistance.
After the attack of Intikane, the Niger army deployed to secure the site, allowing refugees and IDPs to return in the following months. But for Tounfa, the trauma remains vivid: “She spends a lot of time lying down, talking to herself, fearing armed men will be coming soon for us”, tells her father. “She barely eats, often cries and shouts at night. But she sees UNHCR’s partner psychologist two or three times a week and she’s slowly getting better.”
As a protection monitor, Mohamed Youssef* goes every day to Intikane to identify cases such as Tounfa’s and refer them for adequate care. A few weeks ago, he sought psycho-social support for her after she had a panic attack. Mohamed’s job – which consists of reporting specific incidents but also trends – is crucial for UNHCR’s understanding of the very volatile situation of Intikane. “The site has been secured by the army, but the threat has not disappeared”, he explains. “An army patrol recently intercepted two armed militants on a bike who came as close as four kilometers from the site.”
UNHCR leads the protection response to the displacement crisis in Niger, coordinating the work of 66 organizations. In Tillaberi and Tahoua regions, the Agency works with a network of 47 protection monitors and two NGO partners. UNHCR also helped establish 31 community-based groups in the same regions, allowing IDPs to voice their own protection concerns. These groups report regularly on incidents, vulnerable people, children at risk and cases of sexual and gender-based violence. They help sensitize IDP communities on issues such as child protection and pacific coexistence with host communities.
“The protection monitors, as well as our community-based protection network, collect very important data in order to guide our response. Protection monitors are at the forefront of the humanitarian response.”
– Alessandra Morelli, UNHCR’s Country Representative, Niger
Moustapha Nasser* monitors incidents in Ayerou, in Tillaberi region, another commune where IDPs far outnumber refugees. “Since internal displacement started in February 2018, no one has returned home”, he says. “Jihadists consider protection monitors as their enemies, since we provide information on their activity. I have received death threats and someone close to me has been assassinated in the town of Ayerou, so I had to move away. I am now an IDP myself, but thanks to my network, I can still efficiently report on what is going on there.”
Some of the field informers working with Samer Karim*, another protection monitor, also had to leave their homes under armed groups’ threats. Samer works in the Torodi department, which borders Burkina Faso. “Many IDPs are moving towards the largest urban centres where they feel better protected and where there is a humanitarian presence”, he explains.
Robust protection monitoring is crucial to shape UNHCR adequate response to Niger’s internal displacement crisis. Identifying and anticipating trends substantially contributes to UNHCR’s analysis and monitoring of the situation – and hence to inform our operational response on the ground.
*Names of have been changed for security reasons.
Protection monitoring
With the support of the European Union, UNHCR has reinforced the protection environment in conflict-affected regions in Niger throughout 2020. With the conflict expanding into the Tillaberi and Tahoua regions and armed groups being active in the Lake Chad Basin, the security situation has significantly deteriorated. As a consequence, wide-spread human rights violations, forced displacement and protection incidents are on the increase.
With the volatile security situation often making access difficult for its staff, UNHCR relies on a vast network of protection monitors working in the most remote and conflict-affected areas.
These local workers, some of whom are themselves displaced, make daily visits to families, report incidents, refer people for extra assistance and identify trends to help guide the response of the humanitarian community.
Listen to the testimonies of protection monitors in these moving podcasts:
