Tension in Niger over Sudan asylum-seekers

Around 1,400 Sudanese arrived in Agadez in 2017 fleeing slavery and violence in neighbouring Libya

After local people accused them of rape and theft, the Sudanese were transferred to a camp about 10 kilometres (six miles) outside of town.

They have recently been holding rowdy demonstrations to demand the authorities speed up their applications for refugee status, the sources said Friday.

"Early this week they hurled insults at workers" at the camp, an Agadez official told AFP, while a local radio journalist said "they even threw stones at a UNHCR team," referring to the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees.

The governor of Agadez, Sadou Soloke, after visiting the camp, told state radio, "We have had reports that trouble is brewing (again)... so we told them that Niger will not allow instability to take root in the camp."

He said the authorities were "studying the cases" for asylum, but warned "Niger will not accept being put under pressure, in any shape or form."

"The disturbances are not encouraging peaceful coexistence with the local population," he added.

Some of the Sudanese, interviewed by AFP last June, said they had fled the conflict in the Sudanese region of Darfur, seeking a haven in Libya, only to be robbed, kidnapped or forced into slavery.

Agadez, a town of 145,000 in Niger's northern desert, is at the crossroads of the dangerous cross-Sahara trail taken by young Africans seeking to migrate to Europe.

Last year, an influx of West Africans expelled from Algeria -- described by mayor Rhissa Feltou at running at "at least 500 a month" -- placed the town's meagre health and sanitation resources under strain.

In addition to seeking asylum in Nigeria, the Sudanese are requesting refugee status -- something that accords specific rights under the 1951 Geneva Convention.

Under it, an individual may not be forcibly returned to a territory where he or she faces danger, has the right to freedom of movement, access to employment and social welfare, and the possibility of resettlement abroad.

Hundreds of refugees, many of them Ethiopians and Eritreans, have already been resettled from Niamey to France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.