Niger government calls on Red Cross to leave country after working there for 35 years
The government in Niger has called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to leave the country immediately, ending its 35-year-long work in Niger.
According to Niger media, the Red Cross Committee was informed of this decision through a note verbale to the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, without providing a reason for it.
The Red Cross has been operating in Niger since 1990, with offices in Niamey, Diffa, Tillabery and Tahoua, and says it provided health care to more than 120,000 victims of armed conflict last year.
Last November, the Niger government announced the suspension of the activities of two non-governmental organizations, the French Agency for Cooperation and Development (ACTED) and the Nigerian organization Action for Happiness (APBE).
In late January 2025, Niger’s Interior Minister, General Mohamed Toumba, announced that investigations had made it possible to discover the existence of several NGOs linked to partners who he said were waging a war against his country through subversive missions… Through the support they often provide to terrorists”.
Toumba, who is one of the leading figures in Niger’s ruling military council, pledged to take important measures to ensure monitoring and supervision of NGOs and development organizations.
