Hundreds of Niger nationals, mostly women and children, have flooded into Nigeria in search of food, officials and residents said on Friday.
“We are aware of the recent influx of people from Niger into some parts of [southern] Katsina state,” state agriculture commissioner Sani Makana said by telephone from the state capital, Katsina.
The number of Nigerien in northern Katsina state, which shares a land border with Nigeria, has soared in the past two months, residents said.
Makana said some were so desperate they had been forced to beg door-to-door.
“It is a pathetic sight. They just have nothing to live on and have to beg to eat,” Katsina resident Abubakar Shehu said.
“When you ask them why they came here they tell you that they were starving in Niger … and would die if they stayed,” Shehu said.
The UN said that about 7.8 million Nigeriens are in need of food, out of the about 10 million affected by a crisis in the Sahel region.
Many Nigerien men in Nigeria have turned their hand to selling water in order to eke out a living.
Vendors pushing two-wheeler carts laden with 25-liter jerry cans have become a common sight in Katsina city, resident Ibrahim Salihu said.
A Nigerian immigration officer, who asked to remain anonymous, said there was little his officials could do to stop the influx.
“There is very little we can do … due to the porous nature of the over 1,000km border stretch,” he said.
In anticipation of the influx, Katsina authorities have stockpiled grains for distribution, Makana said.
Niger’s transitional government at the weekend announced the launch of a food distribution operation for nearly 1.5 million people facing severe shortages.
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