Two Nigeriens were killed and eleven injured on February 24 in Libya when their vehicle overturned during a car chase in the desert, the latest incident of apparent attacks on Niger immigrants in the country, the government said.
“The minister of foreign affairs … and the minister of public security strongly discourage travel to Libya because of attacks by independent and uncontrolled militias,” according to a foreign ministry statement read over the radio.
“Both departments recommend strongly to the Nigerien youth to refrain from the temptation of migration to Libya until the security and economic situation becomes more stable and reassuring,” it added.
Migrant workers from Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries and which faces near-annual food shortages, have for years sought employment in oil-producing Libya, or a pathway to Europe along its Mediterranean shores.
Libya’s new government has pressed Niger to extradite Saadi, saying his call in an interview with Arab media on February 10 for Libyans to prepare for a “coming uprising” threatened bilateral ties.
Niger pledged to tighten its surveillance of Saadi, who before the war was best known for his passion for football, but said he could not be handed to a state where it says he could be executed.
Protesters demonstrated outside Niger’s embassy in Tripoli after the incident, with some spraying graffiti that read “Cut ties now” and “Close the embassy” on its walls.
Adding to tensions, Libya’s war has pushed hundreds of pro-Gaddafi fighters, along with weapons, south into the Sahel region that are believed to be fueling a renewed Tuareg rebellion in Niger’s western neighbour Mali.
French Foreign Minister Allain Juppe visited Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure on Sunday, pledging French support to end the fighting that has killed scores and forced more than 125,000 people from their homes, including into Niger.