Sanctions, Army Clampdown Worsen Deprivations For Civilians in Niger

Amid stringent international sanctions and isolation, the military junta in Niger has commissioned Africa’s longest oil pipeline that will allow the landlocked nation to sell its crude on the international market for the first time and tap the global energy market. Launching the first phase of the 1200-mile pipeline that will carry crude oil to neighboring Benin, earlier this month, Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, touted that the resources from the project’s exploitation will be used to ensure the “sovereignty” and “development” of the poverty-stricken, aid-dependent country. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union, and the United States have imposed heavy sanctions on Niger since the military coup in late July that ousted the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum....