– Systematic searches –
North of the Nigerian frontier, Zinder is on high alert. At a main entrance to the town of some 350,000 inhabitants, teams of police officers take turns all day long to inspect vehicles under a blazing sun.
Cars, lorries, buses laden with luggage piled on top, minibuses and motorbikes are all systematically searched at a checkpoint marked by a simple rope stretched across the tarred road.
When a boy was hauled roughly out of a minibus, tension soared. People shoved each other and shouted, since Boko Haram is known for using youngsters in its attacks. But a nervous policeman said that the youth had merely been party to a scuffle.
The governor of the Zinder region, Kalla Moutari, says that rigorous inspections are vital and have already enabled the security forces “to intercept people who infiltrated the displaced population”.
“A few dozen” people suspected of having ties with Boko Haram have been arrested around the town, which has for centuries been a major trading hub on a trans-Saharan route. READ: Cameroon army kills 86 Boko Haram militants.
The suspects, all Niger nationals, have been transferred to the anti-terrorist unit in the capital Niamey, where the authorities on Tuesday organised a major protest march against Boko Haram.
The Nigerian extremists “have enlisted many of our young people” in southern Niger, the governor said in the vast reception room of his residence, stressing that “we can’t minimise the threat”.
Concern is all the greater since even before Boko Haram struck in Niger, security forces dismantled several “sleeper cells” of Islamist activists, Moutari added.
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