My name is Boubacar. I’m 43 years old. I went to Libya in 1999, I lived 12 years in Libya. I was a welder. I had two women there and five children.
Daily life in Libya was simple. Arabs often treat us as slaves. It's every day, we must be careful. You have to be careful not to create a problem because it is always the Arabs who are right. During the war I stayed two months. I was in Misrata. I have not seen combat since the Arabs have forbidden to leave, so we were stuck in the house. I wanted to go to the home of a friend of mine, that's how I learned it was possible to evacuate by sea. I did not even know there was a way to leave because we were cloistered at home. That's when I informed my family. All telephone lines were cut off by the army of Gaddafi.
When the army withdrew from Gaddafi to 30 miles, we left. When we reached the sea we left with the boat from International Red Cross. All transportation was organized by country, Chad, Mali, Sudan. We spent a night in the boat. Arrival in Benghazi we have undergone medical tests after we took a bus to Egypt. After we were supported by aid workers. I got permission from the embassy to return to Niger. We were 180 people on board the aircraft. Unfortunately we have not been received by any authority. We stayed overnight in Niamey and after we took the bus to Dosso.

During my stay in Libya, I had a big house and I welcomed Nigeriens who were often looking for work. But around 10:00 pm one night, someone knocked at my door. I opened and I saw all armed men. They shouted a slogan, and then they searched the house and took all our money. Although we have shown all the necessary documents, they took everything. But they did not hit people. We have not suffered from the assault by rebels. I knew some of them before the war. Sometimes it is they who brought us food.

We have suffered greatly from lack of food, especially the lack of water. Especially since my wife was expecting a baby, and he was born during the conflict.

I lost everything; right now, I cannot even afford a door to my house. I don’t have the means to return to Libya. The state said it would help us, but we haven’t received anything. I’m someone who has five children, two wives, a father and two younger brothers in charge, how will I feed them? It's been four months.
I heard that the state of Tahoua gave 25,000 CFA per month. I saw on TV the Prime Minister that would unlock the money, but here we have not seen anything. I have my welder, but I have no power to make it work, so I'm stuck. My only option now is to try to plant something, but for the 20 years I have not grown my own food.

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