By RABAT, Morocco, Jan 19 (AfrikTimes) – Four Moroccan truck drivers went missing on Saturday while crossing the volatile border area between Burkina Faso and Niger, according to sources from the Moroccan embassy in Burkina Faso and a Moroccan transport union.
Three trucks, one of which had a spare driver onboard, disappeared as they traveled without an escort from Dori in Burkina Faso to Tera in Niger, an area known for jihadist threats, the diplomatic source said. Both Burkina Faso and Niger, under military-led governments, are battling Islamist militant groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS, whose insurgencies have destabilized the Sahel region of West Africa over the past decade.
The Moroccan diplomatic source said the embassy is working together with Burkina Faso authorities to find the missing drivers.
Authorities in Burkina Faso have been organizing security convoys to escort trucks in the border area to protect against militant attacks, the source said. However, the trucks set off after waiting for a week without receiving an escort, Echarki El Hachmi, Secretary General of Morocco’s transporters’ union, told reporters.
The trucks, loaded with infrastructure equipment, departed weeks ago from Casablanca heading to Niger, he added.
El Hachmi urged more protection in areas of high risk as the number of Moroccan trucks crossing the Sahel continues to rise. Earlier this month, a convoy of Moroccan trucks was attacked on the Malian border with Mauritania, although there were no casualties, El Hachmi said.
(Note: This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of Echarki El Hachmi’s name in paragraphs 6, 8, and 9.)
