The leaders of a coup in Niger have gotten rid of a law that made it illegal to smuggle migrants in the country.
The law allowed the authorities to stop people who illegally move migrants through the big desert in Niger to Libya and Europe.
President Mohamed Bazoum, who was helping the EU stop people from crossing the Mediterranean, was removed from power in July in a coup.
Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani has announced that he is now the leader of the country.
His group in power said they are getting rid of the law because it doesn’t consider what’s best for Niger and its people.
It also said that the convictions given under the 2015 law would be “removed”.
The decision shows that the leaders in Niger’s capital Niamey want to show they are in charge of the country, even though other countries are telling them not to.
The EU stopped working together on security with the landlocked country in West Africa after the coup in the summer.
Josep Borrell, who is in charge of the EU’s foreign policy,decided in July that he also does not recognize Gen Tchiani as the leader,just like the US and France. He also said that money to help Niger with its budget would be stopped for a longtime.
It is still unknown how the European group will react to a big set back in their plan to control the number of people coming from Africa.
In 2015, over a million people who were seeking safety and a better life tried to go to Europe. This made Niger decide to make a new law, but it was later canceled.
The numbers went down a lot as a result. But the people who smuggle things didn’t like it in the years after.
In2019, Bachir Amma told the BBC that if the law changed,he would definitely go back to trafficking people. I used to make as much as $6,000 [£4,700] a week, which is more than I can make now.
He said that because the law is very strict, if someone is caught, they could go to jail for a longtime and their vehicles could be taken away.
People are worried that if the law is removed, trafficking gangs might start moving migrants to countries near Niger like Libya or Algeria, and then to Europe again.
Niger is an important part of an African area called the Sahel. The Sahel is a strip of land that goes from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.