[interviewee] They collect it from us and sell it
on the black market to the Syrians.
[Mariana van Zeller] How are you?
Hello, how are you?
[Issifou] Yes, we're fine.
Welcome.
[Mariana van Zeller] I'm Mariana.
[Issifou] Yes, Mariana. Welcome.
Welcome.
[Mariana van Zeller] What's your name?
[Issifou] My name is Issifou.
[Issifou] I'll show you.
Down in the hole over there.
[Mariana van Zeller] In the big one here?
[Issifou] Yeah, here.
We're going into the hole.
[Mariana van Zeller] How many meters is it?
[Issifou] It can be more than 100 meters (330 feet).
[Mariana van Zeller] And we can go?
[Issifou] Yeah, we can go look.
[Issifou] You can go down slowly here,
as there are holes on the other side.
Here we are.
[Mariana van Zeller] Is it this way?
[Issifou] Yes, it's this way.
[Mariana van Zeller] Is it here?
[Issifou] Here it is.
[Issifou] Come this way.
[Issifou] That's it.
There's gold in it, see?
There's gold in it.
[Issifou] Where it gives colors like that,
we're going to find gold.
Here it is.
[Issifou] If it's lit up here, it'll go too fast,
and this will explode.
[Mariana van Zeller] We've heard that other mines
are being attacked
by terrorists.
[Issifou] Yes, yes.
They want to kill everyone.
Kill, murder people.
They came to a village
and they said everyone had to give them money.
[Mariana van Zeller] Extortion.
[Issifou] If you don't bring the money,
they'll come and kill you all.
[Kiari Liman-Tinguiri] Last year, 2023,
more than half of all
terrorist related deaths happened in the Sahel.
[Kiari Liman-Tinguiri] You have ISIS, you have Al-Qaeda.
To the south we have Boko Haram.
In the north you have JNIM, which is Al-Qaeda affiliate.
Their goal is to try to set up
Islamic State that can be a sanctuary,
a safe haven for their activity against
the rest of the world.
So, they will use gold,
but not just as an end, no.
They will use it as a means.
[Mariana van Zeller] What do you do to maintain security?
[Issifou] My security is praying to God.
God has to protect us, yeah.
Because we have no weapons.
We're here to work.
Because we don't want to go out and commit banditry.
My dream is to secure enough money
to provide a good education for my children
so they can grow up to be good people.
Look how dirty we are.
It's all to save our children and our parents.
[Issifou] This is where we do the work
to remove the gold.
If we've been working in the bush,
we'll bring the rocks here to be crushed,
to get the gold out.
Yeah, it's the machines that work here.
[Issifou] It's not much.
That's it, but it's not much.
[Mariana van Zeller] How much is this?
[Issifou] One gram.
[Issifou] Little by little, one day it becomes a lot.
[Issifou] Yes, Agadez.
[Mariana van Zeller] So how much gold did you make today?
[Clickely] Just over 200 million (francs).
[Mariana van Zeller] So how much profit do you make
from seven kilos?
-Seven kilos. The profit is twenty million (francs).
[Mariana van Zeller] Is it dangerous to do things here?
[Clickely] Yes.
But we have weapons, we have guns.
[Mariana van Zeller] Have you ever used the weapon?
[Clickely] Yes.
[Mariana van Zeller] Have you ever used the weapon?
[Clickely] Yes.
[Mariana van Zeller] For a bandit? Or what?
[Clickely] For a bandit.
It's normal if you work with gold.
[Mariana van Zeller] So a lot of people here are armed?
[Clickely] There are a lot of guns in this line of work.
That's normal.
[Mariana van Zeller] Have you ever been robbed?
[Clickely] Yes.
[Mariana van Zeller] And how much money?
[Clickely] In total...
[Clickely] 1,220,000,000 (francs)
[Mariana van Zeller] Two million dollars!
[Clickely] That's for sure.
Now I have hired security.
[Mariana van Zeller] Yes?
How many people?
[Clickely] A lot.
Even arriving last night
with this gold,
twenty security cars.
[Mariana van Zeller] Twenty cars?
Really?
[Clickely] Really.
[Kamil Abdoulaye Algoumaret] The situation is very
tense and confused.
[Kamil Abdoulaye Algoumaret] We went to the presidency,
they do some shoots-
[Kiari Liman-Tinguiri] I was here in D.C.
[Kiari Liman-Tinguiri] people telling me something
is happening around the presidency.
So I called the president,
he told me, "Yes, that's the situation we are in."
[Kiari Liman-Tinguiri] Everything can happen in
the immediate after-coup.
I was scared for the president,
for his life, for his family.
And I was scared also for the people.
[Kiari Liman-Tinguiri] It was historical.
It's a political message to say to the world that
for the U.S., friendship with Niger matters.
That they respect and admire what President Bazoum was doing.
That the U.S. is open to assist Niger
in economic growth and development,
but also in security, state-building,
reinforcing democracy.
[Antony Blinken] Niger is really an extraordinary model at
a time of great challenge -
a model of resilience, a model of democracy.
[Anita] Oh yeah, we understand your concerns and they're valid.
Our current recommendation as I understand
is to stay where you are at the moment.
Violence is a lot more likely to break out in places like Niamey
where the pro-Russian protests are currently happening.
[Nathan] We can't identify where the hot spots will be,
and where the safe locations would also be.
It's touch and go at this moment, very much.
[Nathan] If the situation does get worse in Agadez,
we can move you to a different location.
[Anita] So depending on what happens we can move you
to a safe location inside the country...
[Nathan] Currently, no.
[Mariana van Zeller] Moustapha is the name you want me to use?
[Moustapha] Yes.
[Mariana van Zeller] Is that your real name?
[Moustapha] No, no, no.
-What can you tell me about your links with extremists?
[Moustapha] I was converted to terrorism
through brothers I know.
[Moustapha] 18 years old...
The group was Al-Qaeda.
[Mariana van Zeller] Al-Qaeda.
And how did they convert you?
[Moustapha] Well, it wasn't too difficult for me to convert.
Basically here, at home, we're Muslims.
So that's what got me going in the first place.
And then there were other things. The lack of work...
[Mariana van Zeller] For the whole country.
[Moustapha] Specifically in the area I'm from. There's no work.
[Mariana van Zeller] What did you do there (with Al-Qaeda)?
[Moustapha] When you join you go through military training.
And then...
you're given a weapon.
Then you're put in a camp,
but you don't understand what's going on.
[Mariana van Zeller] And what kind of violence did you see?
[Moustapha] Every type of violence.
People decapitated.
They cut off your hands for nothing.
If you're caught with a woman...
They hit you 100 times.
It's very dangerous because it's a system.
Maybe not many people understand it.
I understand it very well
because I'm part of the system.
[Mariana van Zeller] Were you violent?
[Moustapha] No.
It was good luck. It was my good luck.
The good Lord protected me in a way that I didn't kill anybody.
[Mariana van Zeller] How do they manage to pay for their activity
and for these weapons, for all that?
-There's a lot of stuff. Trafficking. Drug trafficking.
[Mariana van Zeller] Gold too?
[Moustapha] Yes, there's gold too.
When they enter a mining site
where the terrorists are in control,
you have to pay the Zakat.
[Mariana van Zeller] And they use gold to pay for things?
[Moustapha] Gold is used to pay for medicines, for example.
It's used to pay for food.
It's used for fuel.
[Mariana van Zeller] Weapons?
[Moustapha] Everything.
Everything.
[Mariana van Zeller] Do you know anyone who's done this?
-Today, even if I know someone who can do these things,
I can't introduce you to them because
I don't know what's going to happen next.
I can be taken away.
I can disappear.
You betray us, we kill you.
[Mariana van Zeller] And what do you think about the coup?
[Moustapha] It's a surprise for me.
I didn't think that today in Niger,
we could stage a coup like that.
It's not good for the country, for its development,
because now everything will come to a halt.
[reporter] International pressure intensifies four days
after the coup d'état in Niger.
France and the European Union suspending budgetary aid.
They do not recognize General Tchiani's power.
-So I'll call you Ismael, is that all right?
[Ismael] That's good.
[Ismael] I'm a transporter.
[Mariana van Zeller] Of what?
[Ismael] Everything.
People, luggage, miners, everything.
[Mariana van Zeller] So how long, how many days,
how many roads does it take to get to Algeria?
[Ismael] You can make the round trip in a single day.
[Ismael] No. I can't take you.
[Mariana van Zeller] Why?
-If there's security with us, we'll go, there's no problem.
[Ismael] But for me to take you like this to go over there,
that's a problem.
[Ismael] They're all dead.
There was one who was still alive when we arrived.
But it's far away and he died on the road.
[reporter] "French nationals in Niger will be evacuated.
This will start today."
"Burkina Faso and Mali claim that
military intervention in Niger..."
"...is tantamount to a declaration of war on
their two countries."
[Paul] Darren just sent it.
[Frank Harrison] A little over ten minutes ago we got
the landing approval for Agadez issued.
And what we're waiting on right now is for
the crew to get in, get the aircraft up in the air.
Correct, and it'll be going Dubai picking you up,
and returning you to Dubai.
[Frank Harrison] I'm actually watching
the crew getting mobilized.
[Frank Harrison] Now, the concern is
we now need to safeguard and protect your team because
now the military in the capital of Niamey
is aware of an evacuation that's occurring out of Agadez.
They may start getting curious.
Try not to share it with too many people.
And the air crew does want you to arrive at the aircraft
with security to safeguard the aircraft.
[Kiari Liman-Tinguiri] We have a very young population.
The youngest in the world.
Sixty-five percent below twenty-five.
President Bazoum was trying to give hope through education.
We are about to lose it.
Not only do we have the jihadists,
but we have all of these traditional leaders
totally opposed to any form of modernity.
Religious leaders who are also
totally anti anything that looks like democracy.
They don't believe that human beings are equal.
They don't believe in that.
They believe that some are better than others.
And these people are surging and gaining influence.