Measuring plights of migrant Tuareg groups in Kano city, Nigeria

Aliyu Barau, Federal College of Education, Kano

Impacts of climate change such as famine, poverty and other social conflicts in the West African arid and hyper-arid regions propel trans-border migration of Tuareg people to Kano. This paper identifies and explains the patterns migration and associated vulnerabilities of the migrant Tuareg community in respect of human rights, violence, healthcare, poverty, literacy etc. The methods adopted for data generation included field observations, FGD, personal communications and interviews based on purposive sampling technique. The conclusions of the paper portray the status of Tuareg migrant community in Kano as being short of attaining the MDGs. The paper also established that the age-long drought adaptation strategies of the Tuareg people was upset via the proliferation of colonial policies that weakened the Trans-Saharan trade which used to sustain the delicacy of the region. It is recommended that the Trans-Saharan trade and a tailor-made disaster response policy be considered for the region.