Although security has improved in the Diffa region, hundreds of thousands are now living as refugees or displaced persons on the Niger side of the border. Photos were taken by VOA's Nicolas Pinault.
A Look Inside a Refugee Camp in Diffa, Niger
Children run after VOA's car in Assaga camp, Niger, March 3, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)
Children clean chalkboards in a classroom at the Ngourtoua camp, Diffa, Niger, March 1, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)
Clothes are hung out to dry at the Assaga camp, Diffa, Niger, Feb. 29, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)
El Hadj Tahirou, the Nigerian tailor of the Assaga camp, in Diffa, Niger, Feb. 29, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)
Men, whose faces are swept by wind and sand, pray at the Assaga camp in Diffa, Niger, March 3, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)
Women and children get water from a well at the Assaga camp, in Diffa, Niger, March 3, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)
A child plays at the Assaga camp, Niger, March 3, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)
Thanks to supplies provided by UNICEF, school children at the Ngourtoua camp listen to their teacher, in Diffa, March 1, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)
Oumara Gobo, village chief of Assaga-Niger, watches over 100 families in this camp for displaced persons near Diffa, Niger, Feb. 28, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)
A humanitarian worker places straw on the roof of a hut at the Assaga camp, Diffa, Feb. 29, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)
Refugees from Assaga-Nigeria show off red peppers they produced, Feb. 28, 2016. Business had been forbidden for months as authorities feared it financed Boko Haram militants. (N. Pinault/VOA)
Nigerian refugees living at the Assaga camp, near Diffa, Feb. 28, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)
A 10-year-old school girl writes on the chalkboard in a temporary classroom at Ngourtoua camp, near Diffa, Niger, March 1, 2016. (N. Pinault/VOA)