Name? Mahamadou Issoufou
Westphalian identity? Nigerien
Age? 68
Why is he in the news? Technically, he isn’t personally in the news but the country he represents is as a recent UNHCR report stated that over 20,000 refugees fled Nigeria into Issoufou’s Niger since April.
Why do we care? All in all, Niger hosts more than half a million refugees from Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigeria, meaning Niger is presumably more stable than three of its neighbors and thus, more likely to receive international interest and investment.
Why should you care? Boko Haram is the main cause for these massive waves of refugees into Niger. In case you forgot or are experiencing ‘quarantine brain,’ Boko Haram is a terrorist organization based mostly in northeastern Nigeria. And, last we checked, terrorist groups are bad so you should probably care when they seem to be succeeding. But hey, Mexico is running out of beer…
Who else cares? Other than the UN and UNHCR who have continued to report on the situation in Nigeria and the consequences it’s causing in Niger, no one else seems to care…yes we know there is an economic and health crisis going on but that doesn’t necessarily stop the humanitarian crises worldwide. As such, we can assume the other refugees streaming into Niger also care about the situation in Nigeria. Not to mention the Nigerien civilians who have been internally displaced as a result of these mass migrations into their country.
Any further comments? Nigeria technically closed all land borders in March to curb the spread of Covid19. However, UNHCR said refugees from Nigeria were still being allowed to seek protection in Niger in spite of border closures. This has led to more and more migrants entering Niger in need of food, shelter, and increasingly important, healthcare. Unfortunately, given the current global situation, humanitarian aid has seen a significant decline; specifically in areas that depend almost entirely on aid (e.g. Yemen). Thus, Issoufou will have some difficult decisions to make in the near future as to who gets aid and how they get it.
