2 Indians killed, one missing in Niger: What is happening in the West African nation?
One of those who died was Ganesh Karmali, 39, from Jharkhand's Bokaro district. An activist from Jharkhand who has been working on the repatriation of the bodies told The Indian Express that the other man had been identified only as Krishnan from a southern Indian state.
The abducted worker has been identified as Ranjeet Singh, hailing from Jammu and Kashmir. 'The Chief Minister has expressed concern over the abduction of Ranjeet Singh, a resident of Ramban, in Niger. He urges the Hon'ble EAM @DrSJaishankar and #MEAIndia to urgently intervene to secure Ranjeet's safe and swift return,' a post on X by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's Office said on July 20.
The Indian Embassy in Niger said the Mission, in the capital city of Niamey, was in touch with local authorities to repatriate the mortal remains and ensure the safe release of the abducted Indian. It also advised all Indians in Niger to maintain vigilance.
How many Indians are known to be in the country, and what is the prevailing political situation there? We explain.
According to the Union Ministry of External Affairs, around 150 Indians are currently in Niger. They are mostly engaged in the hospitality/service/business sectors.
This presents a decline from 2023, when around 250 Indians were in the country.
The Associated Press reported that foreigners are increasingly becoming targets of armed groups in Niger. Several have been kidnapped this year, including an Austrian woman who has lived in Niger as an aid worker for more than 20 years, a Swiss woman seized from her home in April and five Indian workers, also in April.
In its modern history, Niger received independence from French colonial rule in 1960. For a majority of its post-independence era, it has seen single-party rule, military coups and limited space for the survival of democratic governments. Bazoum Mohamed's 2021 victory in the presidential election marked the country's first transition from one democratically elected president to another.
But it was short-lived, and Niger again saw a military coup in 2023 led by General Abdourahmane Tchiani, who was officially sworn in as the president in March this year. He is supposed to serve for a transitional period of five years.
Even before the recent political upheaval, the Sahel region (which Niger is a part of) was facing problems like climate change, poverty and terrorism. Lying to the south of the Sahara desert, it stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, including countries such as Nigeria, Senegal and Chad.
It is also among the youngest regions of the world, with about 64% of the population under the age of 25.
In some cases, the rise of terrorism has been cited in many countries as a justification for coups. Niger's western neighbours, Burkina Faso and Mali, also saw coups in 2022 and 2020, respectively.
The AP also cited the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project as noting that June was one of the country's deadliest months on record. Islamic State-backed fighters launched a major offensive across the Tillaberi and Dosso regions, the latter being where Indians were killed. More than 100 civilians were killed in the exchange of fire.
What complicates the existing issues is the presence of international actors. In an article for Foreign Policy in 2020, Samuel Ramani, an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, wrote, 'Instead of taking constructive steps to address the array of challenges facing the Sahel, great powers and regional institutions are exacerbating the region's problems.'
'Due to their intense focus on geostrategic competition and willingness to equate authoritarianism with stability, great powers such as France, the United States, Russia, and China, have actually perpetuated conditions, such as corruption and fragile state institutions, that contribute to rising political violence in the Sahel,' he added.
One example is the Russian Wagner Group, which has supplied mercenaries to the region. On March 23 last year, Malian and Wagner Group soldiers launched a five-day attack on a border town to 'root out Islamist militants, killing more than three hundred civilians', according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
According to a BBC report, the regional bloc ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) also imposed 'crippling sanctions' on Niger after 2023, such as border closures and a no-fly zone for all commercial flights. However, in January, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger formally left the grouping.
Historically, India and Niger had limited exchanges in terms of trade, but that has changed in recent years. The volume of trade has grown from around $95 million in 2018-19 to $203 million in 2022-23, and while Indian exports composed a major share seven years ago, of late the balance of trade is in Niger's favour.
The main items being exported from Niger to India are Gum Arabic, Resins and other Vegetable saps and extracts, semi-precious stones, Oil seeds (Sesame), misc. grains, goat skins. etc. India has also extended Lines of Credit to Niger, for the construction of infrastructure and community projects.
In 2020, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited the country.
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The BJP view—which I agree with—is that we cannot treat illegals who may be persecuted in Bangladesh in the same way as those who are merely coming here for livelihoods. The Modi government tried to partially signal this differentiation through the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019, but the cutoff date for fast-tracking citizenship for eligible minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan was 31 December 2014, which made the exercise minimalist. Useful for political signalling, but of no real help to the lakhs of Bangladeshi minorities seeking to flee persecution even today. The only logical way out for the BJP is to enact a 'right to return' law for Hindus and minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh—much like the one Israel has for Jews living outside Israel. In India's case, it would mean offering minorities in our neighbouring countries the right to enter India and seek fast-track citizenship. Both Pakistan and Bangladesh continue to persecute their minorities, and do not want to give Hindus equal rights on a par with Muslims. By no stretch of imagination can the reduction in Bangladesh's Hindu population from 22 per cent in 1951 to less than eight per cent in the last census be called anything other than steady ethnic cleansing through coercion and intimidation. The demographic challenge is particularly acute in India's east and north-east, where several districts are now Muslim majority, and others are showing a steadily rising share of Muslims. This is what drove Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to clearly state what the real issue is. In posts made over the last few days on X (formerly Twitter), Sarma made statements that no politician has previously dared to make. Sanjay Hegde, a lawyer, noted that it was not right to equate all Bengali Muslims with Bangladeshi Muslims. He wrote: 'Not every Bengali-speaking Muslim in Assam is a Bangladeshi. The history and geography of Assam and undivided Bengal are far too complex for such lazy thinking.' To which Sarma replied boldly, avoiding political correctness. While agreeing with Hegde that the issue was complex, Samra was crystal clear in identifying the problem for what it was: the steady change in religious demography. 'Legally, all of them may not be foreigners. But we, the people of Assam—especially Hindus—are becoming a hopeless minority in our own land. All this has happened over a span of just 60 years. We have lost our culture, our land, our temples. The law gives us no remedy. That's why we are desperate—not for revenge, but for survival. Yes, we may be fighting a losing battle. But we will go down fighting—with dignity, within the law, and for the soul of our Assam. Do not stop us. Just do not stop us from fighting for what is ours. For us, this is our last battle of survival,' he wrote on X. Thus far, no Opposition politician has given Sarma any kind of evidence-based rebuttal. In response to Mamata Banerjee's attempt to convert the issue into a Bengali-non-Bengali one, Sarma was even bolder in his assertions. 'Didi, let me remind you. In Assam, we are not fighting our own people. We are fearlessly resisting the ongoing, unchecked Muslim infiltration from across the border, which has already caused an alarming demographic shift. In several districts, Hindus are now on the verge of becoming a minority in their own land. This is not a political narrative – it's a reality. Even the Supreme Court of India has termed such infiltration as external aggression. And yet, when we rise to defend our land, culture, and identity, you choose to politicise it.' Courage, maybe. But constitutional clarity is needed, and this can only come if persecuted minorities in our neighbourhood have the right to come to India and settle legally. Ideally, this process should happen through a well-thought-out NRC, and not only through SIR, but both processes have their legitimacy. The political tensions will continue well into the West Bengal and Assam elections next year. The question is: even if minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh are given a legal right to return to India, what happens to those who are found to be illegal immigrants, especially Muslims? Will Bangladesh take them back when it has avoided even acknowledging the problem? Any clear determination on whether a Bengali is Indian or Bangladeshi needs Dhaka's cooperation. In the current situation, where the interim Mohammad Yunus government, backed by Islamists, is inherently hostile to India, such cooperation seems unlikely. They can be given the right to work, while being denied the vote. This right to work cannot be indefinite, but it is needed as an interim measure so that India need not deport non-citizens as soon as they are identified. It will also be more humane. Additionally, we can use technology to determine who may not be an Indian national. We can use AI and regional dialect recognition patterns to figure out if someone is from a district in India or Bangladesh. What we cannot do is allow non-persecuted Bangladeshi Muslims to change the demography in the border states when sources close to Mohammad Yunus are already talking about Greater Bangladesh and the takeover of India's north-eastern states. Yunus himself has talked about Bangladesh holding the key to India's north-east. So, far from being a needless exercise, SIR must precede every state or general election. It would help if EC could draw on a painstakingly compiled and regularly updated NRC. No serious nation can afford to compromise its borders or allow ineligible foreigners to influence local politics. R Jagannathan is the former editorial director, Swarajya magazine. He tweets @TheJaggi. Views are personal.
