In Niamey, the declaration of a large-scale eviction affecting 26,000 individuals has ignited a legitimate wave of indignation across civil society. By executing this extensive operation without any accompanying support measures or resettlement strategy, the transitional government, under the leadership of General Abdourahamane Tiani, has opted for brute force, thereby disregarding fundamental human rights. A critical question now emerges: is this the appropriate manner of governance?
“Yesterday, I slept poorly!” These words, imbued with profound gravity, were uttered by Maikoul Zodi, a prominent figure within Nigerien civil society, in response to what can only be described as a potential humanitarian catastrophe. Displacing 26,000 people from their homes is akin to erasing an entire small town overnight. While authorities frequently invoke urban development imperatives or security concerns to rationalize such demolition waves, the methodology employed in this instance dangerously verges on illegality and inhumanity.
A blatant disregard for national and international legal frameworks
Governance extends beyond merely signing expulsion decrees from the secluded offices of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP). Fundamentally, governance entails protection. However, by consigning thousands of families to absolute precariousness, the current regime has cast aside the most basic legal principles.
As Maikoul Zodi rightly emphasizes, both Nigerien positive law and international standards, particularly the treaties pertaining to economic, social, and cultural rights ratified by Niger, strictly regulate procedures for reclaiming public land. Any clearance of space of such magnitude imperatively demands:
- A preliminary public interest inquiry (enquête de commodo et incommodo),
- A meticulous census of the affected populations,
- And, crucially, fair compensation and a viable resettlement plan prior to the commencement of any execution.
Lacking these essential safeguards, this operation can only be characterized as a “forced eviction,” a practice explicitly prohibited by international law and considered a flagrant violation of human rights.
Thousands of lives left adrift
Beneath the bureaucratic and impersonal term “eviction” lie heart-wrenching human realities. Thousands of children face abrupt interruptions to their schooling, while women, the elderly, and modest workers are, overnight, plunged into homelessness and extreme poverty.
Within a socio-economic environment already stifled by successive crises, how can a government deliberately cast its own citizens onto the streets without concern for their future? What alternatives are offered to these 26,000 souls? None. They are simply abandoned to their grim fate.