As the effect of drought and crop failure lingers in Niger, 250,000 Nigerien pastoralists and their 500,000 livestock have migrated to Nigeria's northern border states of Yobe, Borno, Sokoto and Katsina, the local press reported.
Last year's drought in Niger has caused crop failure which has in turn put over 7.5 million people at the risk of famine.
'More than 90 per cent of the pastoralists are Nigerien Tuaregs along with their wives and children, as well as a herd of cows, sheep and goats,' said the Programme Manager for Livestock Development Project in Yobe state, Dr. Mustapha Gaidam.
One of the migrating pastoralists, Buba Kari, was quoted as saying the migration was necessary because 'there is no food for us and our animals. We have to leave the Sahel region and move to places that we can get graze land and water for our people and animals before they die.'
Afriquejet
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June 13, 2010
Effects of 2009 drought cause patoralists to migrate south from Niger to Nigeria
Categories climate change, drought, Niger, Nigeria, pastoralism
