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NIAMEY, Niger (AP) - Niger's government said Thursday that a mass-expulsion order issued earlier this week applied only to 3,300 refugees from neighboring Chad living in this desert nation without proper identity documents.
The interior minister had said on Tuesday that 150,000 Arab refugees from Chad who have lived in this West African nation for decades must leave because they were destroying arid Niger's fragile ecosystem — particularly water sources.
Government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar said Thursday, however, that the order applied to only 3,300 people, and that the rest of the so-called "Mohamides" nomads who fled strife in Chad decades ago were now naturalized Niger citizens and had a right to stay.
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