Niger Red Cross ban comes amid 'dire humanitarian' situation

This week's announcement by Niger's Foreign Affairs Ministry to effectively ban the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) came unexpectedly, apparently without any prior warning. ICRC Niger has not even had a chance to update its website with the latest developments.

The premises of the ICRC in the capital, Niamey, have reportedly been closed down since Tuesday's announcement, according to Nigerien government sources, and the majority of foreign staff has immediately departed from the West African nation, as reported by the AFP news agency.

There was no official reason given for the military junta's decision to shut down the ICRC operations in the country so suddenly. However, the news came on the same day the globally recognized NGO published its latest report on its humanitarian activities in Niger.

Many believe the timing of the government intervention was not a coincidence.

Much ado about nothing?

Mahamadou Namaiwa Atto, a researcher and law lecturer at Djibo Hamani University in Tahoua, said the government's decision to order the ICRC to carry out the "closure of the office and the repatriation of the foreign staff" was ultimately the "prerogative of a sovereign state."

"Under the domain of international law, a government can end such agreements with other governments or sometimes also with NGOs on its own terms," Namaiwa Atto told DW — especially when "these agreements do not align with the government's own interests."

French public broadcaster RFI cited a local source who said there had been allegations that the ICRC had breached certain aspects of its agreements with the government of the impoverished West African nation, though no further details were provided.

Nigerien authorities had expressed concerns last November about the direct involvement of the European Union with certain NGOs in the country, including the ICRC, saying that the bloc's unilateral decision to contribute to humanitarian aid projects there was "in disregard of the principles of transparency and good collaboration."

Niger under 'no obligation to explain motivation'

The ICRC, which has been helping people in Niger since 1990, has yet to comment on any of these developments, and the reasons for the forced ending of its operations in Niger might even be unknown to its leadership.

Namaiwa Atto suggested there should be no reason for any speculation over the reasons for the sudden closure of the ICRC offices.

"Right now, everyone is preoccupied with [finding out] why this brute decision was taken," he said. "But when we speak about a sovereign state, there is no obligation to explain the motivation behind such decisions."

"A state is only obligated to its constituents and specifically to all the people who live in its territory," he added, without mentioning, however, whether people on the ground — those who benefit from the ICRC's humanitarian activities — were raising any similar questions.

A potentially divisive report — but why?

It remains unclear whether the contents of the latest ICRC report in Niger are indeed linked to the government's decision to expel the humanitarian group from the country.

While the document does not take aim at the military junta, it might still be seen as inconvenient in the eyes of the country's new rulers, who wish to project an overall image of successful military prowess over jihadi insurgents like Boko Haram throughout the region.

The report chiefly deals with ICRC activities in the first half of 2024, coinciding with a period beginning about six months after the military takeover of the country. It focuses on health care services provided by the organization to over 120,000 people during that period — all of whom the report says were victims of the yearslong armed conflict with jihadi groups.

Sanctions aggravate Niger's 'dire humanitarian' situation

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), meanwhile, has highlighted that since the 2023 military coup the sanctions placed on Niger by the international community have been gravely "affecting the country's economy and its people."

"A total of 3.3 million people are suffering from acute food insecurity," Moctar Daouda Abass, the head of MSF operations in Niger, explained following the military takeover in 2023.

He added that the "measures intended to strangle a country's economy — a total embargo being the most extreme example — penalize first and foremost its people, especially those who are already the most vulnerable.

Worrying trend in Niger and beyond

The closure of the ICRC in Niger follows a growing trend in the country and throughout the entire region, whereby NGOs can be expelled by the government without proper explanation or forewarning.

In January, Niger's interior minister, General Mohamed Toumba, announced that the country was going to take "important measures to monitor and supervise NGOs and development organizations," claiming that "many NGOs are involved with partners who are waging war against us."

In November, the French NGO Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) suffered a similar fate when its local Nigerien partner ABPE was closed down by authorities.

ACTED had been working in Niger since 2009, helping people displaced by Islamist violence in the country. But as fighting continues to intensify, the work of groups like ACTED might be more needed than ever before.

West Africa increasingly isolated

For over a decade, Islamists in the border regions of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have been waging a deadly insurgency, which has killed several thousand people and displaced tens of thousands more.

European and US partners have long tried to mitigate the effects of the conflict, running into broad rejection with much of the local population because of their failure to contain the jihadi threat.

Each of the West African states then successively deposed their democratically elected leaders over the past few years in a series of coups, and expelled much of what they say are agents of foreign influence.

All three countries are now under military control, and their former Western partners — chiefly France, Germany, the EU and the US — have been completely pushed out by their new rulers. UN-led missions have also been abandoned or ended, as the coup leaders have turned their attention to forming new military alliances with other countries like Russia, China and Turkey.

Citing its alleged dependency on former colonial powers, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have also exited from the regional ECOWAS bloc, opting to launch their own union instead.

Put together, the three neighboring nations cover an area of roughly 2.65 million square kilometers (1.65 million square miles). If they were one country, they would be the largest nation in Africa, and the 10th-largest in the world.

But with violent conflict in almost every direction in the Sahel, the growing isolation of the region and the rejection of foreign aid could spell further crises.

Edited by: Keith Walker