The Extraordinary Story: One woman’s crusade to end people-trafficking in Niger

From: The Economist IE Sep-15-2024 11:19:am

Read in browser

August 13th 2023

The Extraordinary Story

Long reads and life from 1843 magazine, delivered every Sunday

NIGER

Mimi was sold to a pimp. Now she fights people-traffickers in Niger

How will the coup affect the battle against the trans-Saharan slave trade?

In 2019 one of Mimi’s sisters met a plausible young businessman in a nightclub. They started to date. He told her he could help her get to Europe, where with her skills as a hair stylist she would “make it big” in no time. All the sisters – three in their 20s, one still a teenager – were short of cash; Mimi had dropped out of university for lack of it. They asked the man if they could all go together. He seemed to think that was an excellent idea.

The sisters snuck off without telling their parents. Their journey was hair-raising. The first smuggler’s car stopped in the bush, and the women were told to ride on the back of motorbikes. They raced across what the riders described as dangerous terrain, full of bandits, and sneaked across their first international border, into Niger. They travelled by night, usually by bus, from safe house to safe house. In Agadez, a city in the centre of Niger, the smugglers took their phones “for safekeeping”. The women were told they would get them back when they reached Libya.

Mimi and her sisters were packed into a truck with other young women – perhaps 30 of them in total – each one squeezed between the legs of the woman behind her. After six days they arrived in Libya. A soldier at the border took a wad of cash from the driver and waved them through. At another roadblock, soldiers gave them a choice: pay 100 Libyan dinars each, or be raped. Mimi and her sisters found the money; some of the other travellers didn’t have enough.

At their destination, the traffickers told Mimi and her sisters that they each owed 20,000 Libyan dinars (about $4,000) for the ride, and would have to pay it off by selling sex. At first they refused, but after days of beatings “we finally gave up,” said Mimi.

Read the full article →

Get four months free with an annual digital subscription

Gain clarity on the world’s most important issues. Cancel at any time

Subscribe today

Summer reading

FINANCE

The demonisation of BlackRock’s Larry Fink

All he wanted to do was save the planet while making his firm a fortune. Henry Tricks meets the face of woke capitalism

UKRAINE

How Ukraine’s virtually non-existent navy sank Russia’s flagship

The Moskva was the most advanced vessel in the Black Sea. But the Ukrainians had a secret weapon, reports Wendell Steavenson

MYANMAR

Rum and coke and automatic rifles: Myanmar’s Gen Z guerrillas

Young soldiers have buoyed the country’s fight for freedom, but at great cost. Irena Long meets them in their jungle hideout

Also from The Economist

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

Spanning everything from military strategy and front-line dispatches to analysis of cutting-edge weaponry, The War Room will keep you informed on defence stories in both the battlefield and the boardroom.

We’d like to hear from you

Share your feedback via the email address below.

Email [email protected]

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

This email has been sent to: krazypromo. If you'd like to update your details please click here. Replies to this email will not reach us. If you don't want to receive these updates anymore, please unsubscribe here.

Keep updated