Visa trafficking scandal implicates Niger’s interior minister

Niger’s influential Interior Minister, General Mohamed Toumba, finds himself at the nexus of a highly sensitive inquiry. A pivotal figure within the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) since the coup d’état on July 26, 2023, the high-ranking official is indirectly embroiled in an illicit scheme involving the sale of residency permits between West Africa and Europe, with direct allegations against his spouse.

A clandestine network targeting the Schengen area

The affair, previously confined to diplomatic and security circles in Niamey, implicates the Spanish Embassy in Niger. General Toumba’s wife, a former employee of this chancery, is suspected of leveraging her previous position to orchestrate an extensive network for Schengen visa trafficking.

The operational methodology of this now-dismantled network relied on highly lucrative clandestine services:

• Pricing: Visas were sold for sums ranging between 2 and 5 million CFA francs (approximately 3,048 to 7,622 euros).
• Process: Applicants were not required to appear before consular services, completing all necessary procedures remotely.
• Target Clientele: The system particularly attracted Malian nationals. These individuals benefited from an illegal waiver of the mandatory residency card verification in Niger, a document otherwise essential to bypass the Spanish Embassy in Bamako. Upon their arrival in Madrid, local contacts immediately facilitated their onward arrangements.

Initial findings from the investigation indicate that approximately 1,500 Malians may have traveled to Europe through this fraudulent channel.

Financial ramifications and key arrests

Investigations spearheaded by the Directorate General of Documentation and External Security (DGDSE), under the leadership of Lieutenant-Colonel Souleymane Balla-Arabé, have uncovered suspicious financial flows intended for money laundering across the region, particularly towards Sénégal.

External intelligence agents have conducted several significant arrests:

• Maty Cissokho Toumba, the Interior Minister’s wife, was questioned by investigators.
• Samsoudine Idrissa, identified as the network’s logistical coordinator and an associate of General Toumba, was apprehended by the DGDSE immediately after departing the minister’s residence.
• Another alleged accomplice, reportedly recruited by the minister’s wife shortly before her departure from the Spanish Embassy a year ago, is also under judicial scrutiny.

Elevated political tensions within the state

The initiation of these proceedings by intelligence services (DGDSE), rather than conventional judicial police, exacerbates existing internal rivalries within the ruling military junta. This scandal intensifies the atmosphere of distrust within the transitional regime.

The transitional president, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, increasingly relies on members of his own community (Haoussa), often to the detriment of other senior officials from the Zarma community. This affair directly undermines the most prominent Zarma figures within the regime, notably General Mohamed Toumba (the junta’s third-highest authority) and General Salifou Modi, the Defense Minister, who is widely respected within military ranks.