RESILAC works in four municipalities in the Diffa Region (Chétimari, Diffa, Mainé Soroa and N'Guigmi) where almost half of the population (49%) is under 15 years old. The population is 85% sedentary and 15% nomadic, and only raises livestock. The regional economy is based essentially on agro-sylvo-pastoral production, which has been greatly weakened by the instability in the security situation, which has also resulted in significant loss of means of production and the physical inaccessibility of production sites. Since the beginning of the crisis, Niger has closed the border with Nigeria, where 80% of the region's agricultural production used to take place, and is applying strong economic sanctions.
In 2016, there were an estimated 127,000 internally displaced persons, 82,000 refugees, and 31,000 Nigerien returnees (95 percent of whom were housed in host households). Finally, the Diffa Region has one of the lowest gross school enrollment rates in the country: 62.3% versus 82.1% for the national average.
Sources: World Bank, AFD, Humanitarian Response, Initial Baseline (Groupe URD-RESILAC)