Homes razed around Niger airport in anti-jihadist clampdown
Thousands of illegally built homes are being torn down in a sprawling neighbourhood next to Niamey airport that authorities say was infiltrated by jihadists to carry out an unprecedented attack.
With the bulldozers just around the corner, people in Kobontafa in Niger's capital have been forced to hastily take down their roofs, doors and windows.
"We've been told to clear out," Ali Adamou said. "So, we're picking up the pace," he added from the roof of his house, a crowbar in his hand, like dozens of others.
Niger's military-led rulers have introduced several recent measures designed to counter the risk of jihadist strikes on the capital, which is on its guard.
For around a decade, the vast country in west Africa's Sahel region has battled violence by armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
But on January 29, the city's Diori Hamani international airport and a military drone base were targeted in an attack claimed by the Islamic State in the Sahel (EIS).
Nigerien armed forces and Russian allied fighters repelled the strike, which was a rare development as violence had previously been contained to other parts of the country.
Twenty assailants were killed and four soldiers wounded in the surprise assault, which caused damage, authorities said.
Junta chief general Abdourahamane Tiani, who seized power in a July 2023 coup, later spoke on state television of "a flaw in the system" that "enabled the attack", whose "objective was to destroy all of the air capabilities" of the army.
The demolition concerns mostly the east side of the airport.
The area is "occupied in an anarchic way" and is where the attackers came in from, Transport and Aviation Minister colonel Amadou Abdramane said.
Interior Minister general Mohamed Toumba has said he fears a "new terrorist infiltration through these neighbourhoods" as well as the airport being downgraded by international authorities for lack of security.
"All the countries of the Alliance of Sahel States (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) must take drastic measures to strengthen their security," a former Nigerien lawmaker said, also pointing to widescale jihadist attacks at the heart of the Malian junta in April.
Some 26,000 people living in four neighbourhoods of illegally built dwellings, occupying nearly a quarter of the airport area, are affected, authorities say.
'Watch brigades'
People loaded furniture and other personal belongings into their cars or hired tricycles. Amid the rubble, children watched as a cargo plane took off nearby.
"Forcing 26,000 people to leave is the equivalent of a small town," civil society figure Maikoul Zodi said.
"Even if the operation is considered 'necessary', whatever the reason, Nigerien law and international standards require strict support measures. Without that, it becomes a forced and inhuman eviction," he said.
Authorities have promised to compensate those affected by the demolitions but say people must officially register.
"The government should have taken the social aspect into account and made appropriate arrangements to rehouse those concerned before demolishing the homes they had acquired over many years. Social justice is a demand of the sovereign people," a political analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
Other security measures have been introduced, too.
At the airport, the perimeter wall has been extended and more than 350 cameras have been installed inside and outside the premises.
Within the city, vehicles transporting flammable products, hydrocarbons, butane gas or explosives are prohibited without prior authorisation from going to strategic sites such as barracks, government ministries and public bodies.
Also, "in view of the new infiltration methods used by the enemy", the interior ministry has banned the lodging of "any foreigner" in mosques and Koranic schools, a common practice in a country with a Muslim majority population.
An awareness campaign has also been launched across the country encouraging people to report "any suspicious individual" by ringing the security forces on their emergency phone number.
And at the behest of the authorities, young people organised into "watch brigades" and other local groups set up every evening on the main junctions in the capital to keep an eye out.