Missing Moroccan Truck Drivers Found Safe in Niger

The four Moroccan truck drivers have been found safe and sound. They are currently at the Moroccan embassy in Niamey, accompanied by a Burkinabe driver and another from Togo. These Moroccans were on board three trucks and had left Casablanca for Niger with a cargo of electrical equipment. As they were arriving near the border between Burkina Faso and Niger, they would have refused to follow local security instructions. After that, their disappearance was reported.

The trail of these men "was lost between Dori, in Burkina Faso, and Téra, in Niger," says the Moroccan embassy in Ouagadougou. These are sensitive areas plagued by attacks by jihadist groups for several years. The convoy "took a route that crosses a very high-risk area, where terrorist cells and armed groups known for their regular acts of looting targeting road transporters are active," a diplomatic source told Barlamane.

Moroccan diplomacy had then set up a crisis cell within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Residing Abroad, which worked closely with the Moroccan embassies in Burkina Faso and Niger, as well as with the authorities of the two countries, to find the missing truck drivers.