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00:00Almost a month, all travelers heading to Niger have been forced to stop in Kandi,
00:05a town about a hundred kilometers from the Beninese border.
00:09Among them, a man who just arrived from Accra, Ghana.
00:13He is stranded, desperately trying to reach his family.
00:18It is really difficult.
00:19I don't know when I will be able to get home and be with my family.
00:22I don't know which way to go.
00:24I am lost.
00:25For the love of God, I wish all this would end.
00:28The recent military coup in Niamey sparked a diplomatic rift between Niger and Benin.
00:34This major road, through Malangville, has been shut down since the regime change,
00:40preventing 3,000 to 4,000 daily travelers from crossing.
00:44Before the closure, all these people who used to come down to Malangville,
00:48now they are all forced to go to their respective destinations by other means.
00:52We will have to make a detour, go through Nigeria and Nigeria.
00:55It will be a great hardship.
00:57Amina Hamidou travels regularly to Niamey for cardiac treatment.
01:02She feels the financial burden.
01:06Returning home through Nigeria and traveling through Niger is difficult
01:09if you don't have at least 50,000 in your pocket for the trip.
01:13I pray that peace will return to our two countries,
01:15so that people can come and go as they used to,
01:18because since the borders closed, things have been bad here in the north.
01:22Amidou Ndiaye, a retiree, hasn't seen his wife and three kids in Niger for six months.
01:28It's been a nightmare since the border closed.
01:30We only communicate through WhatsApp.
01:32We just have to wait until the border reopens.
01:36It used to take five hours to reach Niamey from the Malangville river crossing.
01:41However, with the current detours, rough roads and Nigerian customs delays,
01:46the same trip now takes 10 hours.
01:49The same trip now takes 10 hours.
01:52For now, the idea of reopening the border is on hold
01:55as talks between the two nations have hit a roadblock.