Africa-Press. A weekly publication in Niger has reopened a file that has remained closed for 20 years, discussing in its latest issue what it described as a decision by the authorities to organize the repatriation of members of the Arab community known as the Mahamid, residing in the Diffa region in the southeast of the country, back to their “original country” of Chad.
According to the publication, the procedure is implementing instructions issued by the Ministry of the Interior to identify the individuals concerned, withdraw their civil status documents, and return them to their original country.
The newspaper placed the decision in the context of tensions over pastoral and agricultural resources, stating that a “recent accidental incident” has revived these tensions, without specifying what it was. It questioned the necessary balance between implementing administrative decisions, security requirements, and maintaining social cohesion in a region already described as fragile.
No official statement has been issued by the Nigerien authorities regarding this matter as of the preparation of this report, and there have been no figures provided regarding the number of individuals involved, nor any comments from N’Djamena or representatives of the Arab community in Niger.
Precedent from 2006
If confirmed, this decision would not be the first of its kind. In October 2006, Niamey announced its intention to expel Arabs from the Diffa region to Chad on the grounds that they were not citizens. The decision affected 150,000 individuals, while the Citizenship Rights Initiative in Africa reported that 4,000 of them were actually deported.
At that time, the Minister of the Interior stated that the indigenous population “is upset by the behavior of these Arabs and we can no longer overlook it,” adding that the Mahamid “carry firearms and pose a daily threat to local residents” in clashes at water points.
During the repatriation process, two girls died after fleeing from government forces, and three women suffered miscarriages, according to the same initiative. By the end of the same month, the Nigerien Council of Ministers suspended the decision following interventions from neighboring countries, primarily Chad.
However, the suspension did not resolve the legal status of the group, many of whom the state continues to classify as stateless Chadian refugees, according to the same source.
Where Did the Arabs of Diffa Come From?
According to historical sources, groups from a tribe known as the Awlad Suleiman invaded the Kanem Empire in the late 19th century from the north, expanding westward until 1923 and joining Arab herders from the “Shuwa” tribe. After the Sahel drought, Sudanese Arab tribes moved towards Niger, followed by groups during the Chadian civil war and the Chadian-Libyan war in the 1980s, settling near the city of Diffa.
Arabs make up 1.5% of Niger’s population or slightly less, while research published by the “Origins” journal from Ohio State University estimates them at 0.3%. They are primarily from the Mahamid clan of the Rizeigat in Sudan and Chad.
The Diffa region is characterized by ethnic diversity, alongside groups such as the Toubou, Fulani, and Kanuri. These groups lived peacefully until the drought period, when competition for resources began, leading to conflicts, some of which became politicized.
Research from “Origins” indicates that security estimates suggest there are more than 4,000 Nigerien fighters within the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces, the vast majority of whom are from the Mahamid. The research clarifies that the Mahamid are a clan within the Rizeigat tribe, while the leader of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti), belongs to the Mahariya clan of the same tribe.
Following the coup on July 26, 2023, Nigerien generals accused the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum of sending Arab soldiers to fight in Sudan in support of the Rapid Support Forces, with some Sudanese sources estimating their number at 6,000 fighters.
Bazoum, who hails from the Awlad Suleiman tribe and was born in the Diffa region, is the first president of Niger from the Arabs of Diffa. During the 2020 campaign, doubts were raised about his nationality before the constitutional court ruled that they were unfounded. He remains detained with his wife since the coup, and the European Parliament described his detention in a resolution issued on March 12 as arbitrary.
