Niger opens land border with Nigeria

The government of Niger Republic has opened its land border with Nigeria for operations.

It was gathered that the border in Konni, Niger Republic, was opened at about 12 p.m. on Friday, March 22, 2024.

The development came a week after the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) opened the Illela land border between Nigeria and Niger Republic.

The reopening of the border followed a directive by President Bola Tinubu for the reopening of Nigeria’s land and air borders with Niger Republic and the lifting of other sanctions against the country.

Confirming the development on Friday, a resident of Konni, Nuhu Samaila, said the border reopening would lead to the improvement of the economy of the two countries.

“It is a commendable effort, at least by the government, to have done the needful at last.

“It was our collective prayer that this border too should be reopened after the Nigeria side was declared open.

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“I want to believe that this will definitely help a lot in the improvement of the economy of these two countries, as it will facilitate more trading activities between Nigeria and Niger Republic,” Samaila told Punch.

The Star recalls that Tinubu, on March 13, ordered the reopening of the borers, saying the directive complied with the decisions of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government at its extraordinary summit in Abuja on February 24.

ECOWAS leaders had, in the summit, agreed to lift economic sanctions against Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea.

President Tinubu directed that the sanctions imposed on Niger be lifted with immediate effect.

He listed the sanctions to include the closure of land and air borders between Nigeria and Niger Republic, as well as ECOWAS no-fly zone on all commercial flights to and from Niger Republic; and the suspension of all commercial and financial transactions between Nigeria and Niger, as well as freeze of all service transactions, including utility services and electricity to Niger Republic.

Others are the freeze of assets of Niger in ECOWAS Central Banks and the freeze of assets of the Republic of Niger, state enterprises, and parastatals in commercial banks.

The Star