Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
SMA
by Mauro Armanino
Niamey (Agenzia Fides) - It happened last Wednesday, May 29, in the savannah, on the border with Burkina Faso. A group of Nigerien soldiers set fire to the granaries in the village of Nadouani, in the municipality of Bomoanga. In the village of Tchinibai, other soldiers, after discovering and setting fire to a motorcycle hidden in the hut, killed seven farmers who were weaving mats under the shelter of a tree. Farmers killed by armed groups and apparently also by those who were supposed to protect them. From one abuse to the next, they live in daily fear that the next day will not be too late, with more demands and threats from the "jihadists" or self-proclaimed "jihadists".
The ordeal of the Gourmanché people, who live on the border between Burkina and Niger, seems endless. This is a people who resisted Muslim pressure for a long time and then unexpectedly converted to Christianity. This people has long been subjected to open and painful persecution by armed groups composed mainly of young Peul or Fulani nomads, traditionally pastoralists.
The armed conflict is marked by a "Salafist" Islamic ideology. But this does not explain everything that is happening in this territory, a hundred kilometers from the capital Niamey. Shepherds, farmers, Christians, Muslims, especially from the Peul ethnic group, in a militarized environment in which the region's peasants are increasingly fewer. In a period of political transition, following the coup at the end of July last year (see Fides, 27/7/2023), the living conditions of the poor have continued to deteriorate.
The word "genocide", often used and abused, may seem exaggerated. Yet what we are experiencing resembles this particular process of disappearance, albeit in moderation and with differences. It is no coincidence that in the savannah a cultural, economic, religious and ethnic ordeal is perpetuated, sometimes by the relative indifference of the security forces.
A people long since "forgotten" by the State. The Christian values, very present in the heart of this people, have gradually become an "aggravating" factor of persecution. In this border area there are now many villages that the Gourmanché farmers had to abandon. Strangely, in these villages, members of the "Peul" ethnic group live undisturbed, protected by armed groups and ignored by the military. As divine irony would have it, the two new priests of the Church of Niamey, to be ordained next September, come precisely from this region. From calvary to the resurrection in the savannah, barely three days pass. (Agenzia Fides, 7/6/2024)
