Niger decided last week to “suspend” the transit of petroleum products destined for neighboring Mali, an earlier measure unrelated to the recent attacks in Bamako against the Nigerien president, several members of the government in Niamey said Tuesday.
In a memo dated September 21, the General Directorate of Customs in Niger announced “the suspension of the issuance of transit authorizations for petroleum products granted to users in Mali.
Products for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Mali (Minusma), however, are exempt from this suspension, the note added.
In addition, the text announced the “suspension” of authorizations “already issued” for the supply of petroleum products in Mali and which are not intended for the UN mission.
“This suspension measure does not affect exports of refined petroleum products from Niger, which continue to be exported to Mali,” said Tidjani Abdoulkadri, spokesman for the government of Niger, in a statement.
This decision was taken three days before the attacks by Mali’s interim Prime Minister, Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, on Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum.
At the UN, he had accused Mr. Bazoum “of not being Nigerien”.
According to Mr. Abdoulkadri the suspension measure “has nothing to do” with these statements.
“There is a fortuitous coincidence of timing that some have tried to interpret as some kind of retaliation against the brotherly Malian people. I
here is no correlation,” said Niger’s Finance Minister Ahmat Jidoud.
According to the Niger government spokesman, last August Niger Customs granted authorizations to certain companies to transport petroleum products from Nigeria to certain neighboring countries such as Mali, via Niger.
But these companies were engaged in “fraudulent practices” by returning their products “exempt from taxes and customs duties” on the Nigerien market for which they were not intended, he justified.
A customs source had also invoked “security” reasons to AFP.
Deliveries of hydrocarbons to the Minusma will be “escorted to the border of Mali,” the source said.
In Niger and neighboring Burkina Faso, several sources report frequent hijackings of trucks carrying hydrocarbons by jihadist groups.
Niger and Mali have been facing attacks from jihadist groups affiliated with the Islamic State (EI) and al-Qaeda for years.
