Calls for Aid as Sub-Saharan Refugees Flock to Niger

Hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans are heading back to their homelands amid a spike in vigilante violence - including the stabbings of African migrants. Despite their ordeal, they have expressed relief to be back home.

The Integrated Health Centre (IHC) in Assamaka supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is overwhelmed as thousands are seeking shelter in the facility. "The situation is worrying," says Schemssa Kimana, MSF project coordinator for Agadez.

"We don't know when we will leave Assamaka. It's like being in an open-air prison. For meals, all that we receive is very badly prepared. There is more sand in it than food. It makes us sick and gives us diarrhoea and stomach aches," she says.

"We are worried because no one gives us an answer as to when we will return back to our country of origin," says a migrant from Cameroon taking shelter at the IHC.