Saturday, November 23

‘A Nest of Spies’: Niger’s Deserts Become Front Line of Fight Against Jihadism

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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.

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