Covid-19: Niger reopens its borders after fifteen months of closure
Visitors wash their hands as part of health measures to fight against the coronavirus, at the entrance to Issaka Gazoby hospital in Niamey, May 8, 2020. (Illustrative image) AFP - NICOLAS REMENE
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2 min
After fifteen months of closing the borders, the Nigerien government decided to reopen them.
The decision, taken at the last Council of Ministers, specifies that it is thanks to the control of Covid-19 in the country.
A decision hailed by the country's economic operators.
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With our correspondent in Niamey
,
Moussa Kaka
It is the control and mastery of Covid-19 through a major vaccination campaign that officially allowed this reopening.
The President of the Chamber of Commerce, Moussa Sidi, welcomes this decision: "
It is a great pleasure for us to see these borders open and allow the mobility of people and especially of our economic space
".
One of the most affected sectors is land passenger transport.
For 72 hours, activities have resumed.
"
Fifteen months without connecting the sub-regional capitals - we are going as far as Dakar, as far as Nouakchott - this opening will allow us to take a deep breath
," points out Mohamed Ben Dahan of the employers' organization of modern guards.
Under a hangar of one of the companies, Souleymane Abdou, waits for his bus to Abidjan.
“
With the reopening of borders, business will go well with neighboring countries;
that's a good thing, thank goodness
.
"
For more than a year, the situation has been untenable in the tourism and hotel sector.
"
A good clientele in this sector comes from neighboring countries, so this is excellent news, it was starting to become untenable
", underlines the secretary general of the association Nawal Kader.
With this reopening, the government hopes to revive the country's economic activities.
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