Wall Street Journal
By Joe Parkinson
Photographs by Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin
for The Wall Street Journal
Once-sleepy capital hosts project to halt the migrant trail from West Africa toward the Mediterranean and combat the expansion of regional terrorism activity; some worry nation could become a target.
NIAMEY, Niger—Diplomats, spies and hostage negotiators gather nightly on the moonlit terraces of colonial-era hotels in this remote desert capital to trade intelligence on security threats.
Foreign bases and vast new embassy complexes are rising along sand-caked streets. In the shadows, smugglers move migrants, guns and drugs across lawless territory.
