Sanctions deepen economic misery in post-coup Niger

Acute poverty is widespread in Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries. However, West African sanctions intended at forcing a return to democracy following a coup are making people’s lives more difficult. Food and medication are limited in the landlocked country, prices are increasing, and factories are idle due to outages caused by regional giant Nigeria cutting its electrical supply. Earlier this month, the UN reported that 7,300 tonnes of food supplies meant for Niger were stranded in transit due to border restrictions. “Almost all prices have risen due to the sanctions,” shopkeeper Elhadj Ali tells his customers defensively at the bustling Dar-es-Salaam market in the capital Niamey. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended commerce with Niger after rebel elite troops deposed democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum on 26 July. Negotiations to restore civilian authority have yet to produce results, with the junta wanting a three-year transition period and ECOWAS demanding Bazoum’s immediate return. Imported rice, a national staple, has skyrocketed in price, with a 25-kilo bag now costing 14,500 CFA francs (about $25, 22 euros) compared to 11,500 CFA francs before the revolution. “For the moment there are no shortages and the prevailing stocks will see us through till December,” said Chaibou Tchiombiano, general secretary of the main association of Nigerien exporters and importers. But he warned that reduced rice imports from China and Thailand could eventually lead to shortfalls. Medicines are also getting scarcer. The main supplies come from Cotonou – the main port and economic heart of neighbouring Benin, which has closed its frontier with Niger. Roughly 80 per cent of Niger’s imports transits through Cotonou. “Medicine stocks have fallen by 30 to 55 per cent since September 19 while the acceptable level is seven per cent,” said Amadou Seyni Maiga, the general secretary of Niger’s main association of pharmacists. Maiga called for an immediate lifting of a ban on medical supplies. Smugglers thriving On the frontier with Benin, hundreds of trucks are blocked on the border and the sole bridge traversing the Niger River is choked with stationary trucks and containers. Niger shares southern frontiers with ECOWAS members Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Benin, but it is also a major trading route with other nearby members of the bloc such as Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast. On its southern borders with Nigeria, smugglers carry out a flourishing trade, spiriting in goods, people and even cattle despite the blocked borders. A resident in Maradi, which borders Nigeria, said: “Smugglers use motorcycles and small cars to bring in large quantities of essential goods.” However, the situation is very different in the north of the sprawling arid country. “Thanks to the corridors with Libya and Algeria, we are very well stocked,” the mayor of the key northern city of Agadez, Abdourahamane Tourawa, told AFP. “Trucks come in regularly loaded with cereals, oil, wheat, electrical goods and construction materials,” he said. The military rulers are also grappling with a freeze on the assets of the central bank of a country that is a major producer of uranium as well as oil and gold. ECOWAS has frozen Niger’s state assets in the regional central bank and frozen assets of the state and state enterprises in commercial banks. The junta-appointed Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine recently managed to pay the July and August salaries of state employees and the security forces with just internal revenues. The government is “exploring all means possible” to ensure supplies, Commerce Minister Seydou Asman recently said on state television. Burkina Faso, which is also led by a junta, has expressed solidarity with Niger by keeping its border open. Following the coup, Niger’s new rulers were swiftly supported by juntas in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, whose presidents were likewise forced out after failures to stem a jihadist insurgency. There have been several demands outside Niger seeking an end to the sanctions, including by medical charity MSF or Doctors Without Borders, which called it a “collective punishment”.