Niger calls off refugee expulsion plan

Niger’s government has called off a threat to expel thousands of Arab refugees from neighbouring Chad.

No reason was given for the move, which was announced in a government statement last night.

“After studying this question and all its socio-economic implications, the government has decided to stop the expulsions,” government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar said in a statement broadcast on state television.

Omar said the government was not reacting to pressure from the international community over the controversial move to expel the refugees.

Niger’s interior minister said on Tuesday that 150,000 Arab refugees from Chad who have lived in this West African nation for decades must leave because they were destroying arid Niger’s fragile ecosystem – particularly water sources - and threatening native inhabitants with arms.

On Thursday, Omar said the mass-expulsion order only applied to 3,300 refugees allegedly living in Niger without proper identity documents.

Representatives of the affected community, nomadic cattle and camel herders known as Mohamides, had condemned the expulsion order and called on the African Union and the United Nations to help.