Original subtitles

[♪ suspenseful music plays]

[Mariana van Zeller] Back in September of 2001,

I was a student at Columbia's Journalism School

in New York,

when the world as we knew it changed.

[♪ suspenseful music plays]

As one of the few Portuguese journalists in New York,

I was asked by a network in Lisbon to go live from the city.

[speaking Portuguese].

[Mariana van Zeller] It was the first time I'd covered terrorism

and it awakened me to the ways that extreme ideologies

festering in distant places can impact

so many in a globalized world.

[overlapping chatter]

[Mariana van Zeller] My experience on 9/11

led to other stories,

investigating terror networks in Syria, Iraq,

Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone...

You see the mine right here?

...Nigeria and Lebanon.

In the hands of Hezbollah, how careful should we be?

[Rami] Uh, you should be very careful.

[Mariana van Zeller] I've tried to understand how these

groups think, how they recruit,

how they plan.

It goes into the truck, yeah?

And how they fund their operations.

They're making money out of the selling and

out of the transportation of oil.

[Mariana van Zeller] And recently, I've heard rumors

of a new funding source, gold.

That's what brought me to Niger.

[gunfire]

[bystander] Allahu Akbar!

[Mariana van Zeller] I came here to learn how this dangerous

trade works and how terrorists are profiting.

But then, the world shifted once again.

Hi, can you hear me?

The communication is really bad.

Communication is really bad.

I'm sorry.

[phone disconnects]

[bleep].

[Darren Foster on phone] Hello?

[Mariana van Zeller] Yes, so we just got word that there was

a military coup, and basically it just happened a few hours ago

in the capital.

And we're just waiting for, for word on what to do.

We're not sure.

[inaudible].

[Mariana van Zeller] What's that?

Sorry, the, the connection.

[phone disconnects]

Yeah, and now it's not even going through.

We have no idea what's happening.

We're all really on edge and it doesn't look like

it's very safe for us to stay here.

[♪ theme music plays].

[singing foreign language].

[♪ upbeat music plays]

[Mariana van Zeller] So, we're basically driving right

in the middle of the Sahara.

There's no, like, actual real roads here.

And there's just miles and miles of

just emptiness, nothing.

We're in a convoy of three military trucks right now,

with about, I don't know, like 20 guys carrying an AK-47,

and they say that that's necessary here,

because there's been an increase in attack in this region.

Niger is one of the most remote and dangerous places

in the world.

The country is part of the Sahel region of Africa,

a region that's become a breeding ground for

the biggest brands in terrorism.

Since the early 2000s, groups like al-Qaeda,

Boko Haram and The Islamic State

have killed tens of thousands of people in the Sahel,

and displaced millions more.

[bystander] Allahu Akbar!

[Mariana van Zeller] It's all part of a violent attempt

to expand their influence and spread their ideology.

But that expansion is costly.

And one newfound commodity here is helping to fuel it.

So, there's been a huge gold rush in Niger in

the past decade and there have been gold mines

popping up all over the country.

We're heading to one of the most recent ones.

I want to know if these recent discoveries of gold are becoming

a hidden source of funding for terror groups,

so I'm starting at the source.

You can start seeing some huts.

You know, you drive in the desert for so long,

you don't see anything and it seems like so out of place.

So here it is. This is it.

The gold Wild West.

[laughter]

[Mariana van Zeller] All those holes on the ground,

that's all mines.

So, they're basically going down in, under these holes.

Wow. That is insane.

[Mariana van Zeller] This is a familiar sight throughout

the Sahel, young men prospecting in the desert with

hand tools and little else.

But the reason our army escort is on high alert is

because deadly attacks on mining sites, like this one,

have become alarmingly common.

[Mariana van Zeller] In fact, this was one of the only mines

in the entire country that they felt comfortable

with us visiting.

[Mariana van Zeller] So he's saying his mine is right here.

But you can see all of these were,

there's a bunch of holes around that are all,

they're all essentially mines.

Oh, wow.

Holy moly. Okay.

This, so this is the entrance to his mine, right here.

Wow.

[Mariana van Zeller] Oui.

[Mariana van Zeller] Oh, wow, so there's a, one of the guys,

one of the miners that's coming up right now,

so we're at about 60 feet and

we have to go over 200 feet down.

The mine has been blasted with dynamite and dug out by hand.

There are no supports to buttress the walls or ceiling.

And yet, Issifou and his men navigate the shafts without

any safety equipment and just flip flops on their feet.

[groans]

Okay.

Oh, wow, it's getting really, really dark now.

Super dark.

You can barely see anything.

You really do need these headlamps.

All of this is unregulated.

The sense I get from the miners is that the government is

so strapped for resources,

these mines can operate with impunity.

I imagine there's a hope, too, that young men at work in

the mines will be harder targets for terrorists to recruit.

If that sounds rather desperate, it is.

And indicative of the many challenges facing the country.

[Mariana van Zeller] I mean, come and, come and see this.

This is crazy how deep it gets.

At this point, it's just so steep that we have to go with

our bums down as if it's a slide.

[speaking French]

[Mariana van Zeller] I think we're getting close.

You can start hearing the hammering on the rock here.

[Mariana van Zeller] Oh, wow.

Okay, so this is where they're digging right now.

You can see them essentially hitting and

basically digging for gold.

See and then it all goes into these big,

white bags and gets carried up.

It's, uh, really hot here, very hot,

and really dark.

And you could see pieces of, basically,

the ceiling falling down.

[Mariana van Zeller] Oh, wow.

[Mariana van Zeller] So this is the vein.

[Mariana van Zeller] It's estimated that more than

$5 billion in gold is extracted each year from

small unregulated sites in the Sahel, like this one,

a testament to the sheer willpower

of miners like Issifou.

And, uh, they're, they're telling us that we actually have

to start going up because they, at, at 5:00 p.m.,

they start putting dynamites in the mines around,

so there's a risk that this will all collapse.

So they're telling us we have to head up.

We have two minutes to get up there.

Okay, okay.

Okay. Okay, let's go, guys.

[speaking French].

[♪ suspenseful music plays]

[Mariana van Zeller] If they reach a rock that is too hard to

hit by hand, that's when they use the dynamite.

And he says they use it quite frequently.

Every workday at 5:00 p.m.,

Issifou and his men set off explosives.

[rumbling]

Whoa, did you hear that?

[Mariana van Zeller] When the dust settles,

they'll descend back into the mine and work late into

the night, hauling out the blasted rock.

Much as I'd like to stay, the gold mines of the Sahel region

are not a place to be caught after dark.

The soldiers escorting us are adamant that we get back to

our camp before nightfall, or risk finding ourselves

in somebody's crosshairs.

[Mariana van Zeller] Kiari Liman-Tinguiri has served

as the Nigerian ambassador to the United States since 2021.

[Mariana van Zeller] Back in 2002 and 2003,

there were just nine terrorist attacks on

the entire African continent.

Fast forward 20 years to 2022,

and that number jumped to 2,737 attacks

in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali alone.

The attacks often entail large groups of terrorists

roaring into villages and mining sites on motorcycles,

and robbing and killing with abandon.

[rapid gunfire]

[Mariana van Zeller] Ultimately, it's this desperation that keeps

the miners digging, despite all the risks.

[grinding]

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[Mariana van Zeller] The rocks he brings here generally

yield small amounts of gold.

It's then sold to middlemen for cash,

and the profits split evenly between

the mine's owner and Issifou's crew.

[Mariana van Zeller] So this is a gram of gold basically.

This is after it's, the mercury's been burnt off.

It will be sold for the equivalent of about $60.

It doesn't look like much, but, uh,

this is why all of this is happening.

It's all because of this.

This is taken, then transported to Agadez.

[Mariana van Zeller] The journey from here to Agadez is

100 miles of unpaved and punishing terrain.

[singing in foreign language]

[Mariana van Zeller] But waiting at the end is a city

that serves as a stronghold

of Tuareg people and a crossroads of the Sahel,

where fortunes in ivory, salt, spices, and slaves

have traded hands over the centuries.

[car honking]

Today, it's gold that feeds the local economy.

[clinking]

[sizzling]

Oh, wow.

This is almost 600 grams of gold.

It's worth, uh, $36,000.

This is market day for Clickely, a gold broker who has come to

the forge to melt down ingots that he and his men have bought

from miners like Issifou.

If terrorists are stealing gold, at some point,

they must trade it...

[sizzling]

And I'm hoping Clickely can explain how

and where that happens.

[Mariana van Zeller] So today alone, he's processed

$333,000 worth of gold here.

That is incredible.

[Mariana van Zeller] 20 million?

So that's $33,000 that he's made just today from

the golds that he was able to process.

And that's liquid.

Just pure money.

Clickely has agreed to speak with us,

but only for a short while.

Especially in a country with poverty as desperate as Niger's,

walking the streets with gold bars is an invitation

to be robbed or killed.

[♪ suspenseful music plays]

[♪ eerie music playing]

[clicks]

[Mariana van Zeller] So many zeros.

- Yes. - $2 million?

- Yes. Yes. - Wow!

[Mariana van Zeller] Wow.

The Sahel wasn't always this dangerous.

Ironically, it was an American and NATO intervention

in neighboring Libya that created a power vacuum and

opened the floodgates to militants.

[Dr. Stephanie Savell] The problem really arose following

the fall of Gaddafi in 2011 in Libya.

[reporter] This final image,

a violent end for a violent man.

[Dr. Stephanie Savell] The mercenaries who were fighting

for Gaddafi, they looted his weapon stores.

[reporter] Artillery, rockets, missiles,

and chemical weapons agents that

could make a terrorist's head spin.

[Dr. Stephanie Savell] And came down south into Mali.

[Mariana van Zeller] That influx of fighters and weapons

made the Sahel less safe and less stable.

Terrorist groups saw the region's increasing lawlessness

as the perfect place to recruit, train,

and plan attacks, both in Africa and beyond.

Back in Washington, America saw uncomfortable parallels

to Afghanistan and 9/11.

[President Obama] We have to recognize that the threat has

shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11.

With a decade of experience now to draw from,

this is the moment to ask ourselves hard questions,

about the nature of today's threats and

how we should confront them.

[Mariana van Zeller] To try to stem it,

they began pouring humanitarian and military aid into Niger.

So, this is actually one of the largest U.S. military

drone bases in the world,

and we're in the middle of the Sahara Desert,

in the middle of nowhere.

On the outskirts of Agadez is an American military facility

known as Air Base 201.

Finished in 2019 by the U.S. Air Force

at a cost of more than $100 million.

American taxpayers also spend an estimated

20 to $30 million a year to maintain it.

You can see it's all this barbed wire that goes on

for a long time.

There's a bunch of soldiers coming out.

Well-armed.

They want us to stop? Are they asking us to stop?

Should we stop?

I think we were driving too close to the base.

So now we have a couple of, uh,

soldiers coming to ask us questions.

The U.S. has more than

1,000 military personnel stationed in Niger

whose presence, along with drone surveillance and strikes,

are intended to help keep terrorist groups in check.

[explosion]

But lawlessness remains rampant.

Even here, on the perimeter of Base 201,

less than a year ago, a vehicle carrying $40,000 in payroll for

the base was robbed in broad daylight.

So it's understandable why they'd ask us to stop the car.

So we're with National Geographic,

we're a television crew.

I can show you my credential.

After a few questions, they let us go.

[soldier] Go, go.

[Mariana van Zeller] Our plan was now to move closer to

the capital, Niamey, to further investigate gold

and terror connections.

When we came to Niger, we knew that the gold trade was just

one facet of a bigger story, about America's ongoing strategy

for combating Islamic terrorists,

and its battle with other global powers

for influence in the region.

But not in our wildest dreams did we expect

what would happen next.

[phone line ringing]

[Darren Foster on phone] Hello?

[Mariana van Zeller] Hi, can you hear me?

The communication is really bad. Communication is really bad.

I'm sorry.

[phone disconnects]

[bleep].

[phone line ringing]

- Hello? - Yes.

[Mariana van Zeller] So, we just got word that there was

a military coup in the country.

Just got back to the hotel and finally got access

to cell phone service.

And basically, it just happened a few hour,

a couple of hours ago in the, in the capital, um,

and we're just waiting for, for word on what to do.

We're not sure.

Um, right, you know, right now, we're in Agadez.

[inaudible].

[Mariana van Zeller] What's that?

Sorry, the, the connection.

[phone disconnects]

Yeah, and now it's not even going through.

[reporter] Tonight, chaos in the capital of Niger...

[rapid gunfire]

After what appears to be a coup attempt against

President Mohamed Bazoum by his own security forces.

[speaking foreign language].

[Lester Holt] In addition to growing threats

from terror groups.

[reporter] The U.S. is calling for the president

to be released immediately.

[reporter] Officers were closing the country's borders

and establishing a curfew.

[speaking foreign language].

[reporter] Niger is a key security ally for

the U.S. in the region.

[correspondent] This does not bode well at all.

[Mariana van Zeller] Kamil?

- Hello? - Hey, Mariana here.

[Mariana van Zeller] We got the news and it's, uh,

I think we're all a little bit on edge here.

We're all very nervous.

How are you doing?

[Mariana van Zeller] And what do you, what do you mean?

What is happening in the capital?

[phone disconnects]

Oh, [bleep].

[phone line ringing]

Hi, can you hear me?

- Hello, sorry. - So, what happened exactly?

[Mariana van Zeller] Can you tell me?

[Mariana van Zeller] Oh, wow. So, there were some

shots fired, right, on the streets of, of the capital?

[phone disconnects]

So yeah, I think, we have no idea what's happening.

We're all really on edge and waiting to hear what to do next.

It doesn't look like it's very safe for us to stay here.

[Kiari Liman-Tinguiri] I received calls and

WhatsApp message and, uh.

[reporter] Demonstrators who support the president scampered

as gunshots rang out.

[reporter] Why this coup is happening is unclear.

[reporter] They've closed the country's borders and

they've closed the airspace, so no flights are coming or going.

[reporter] What was a fragile democracy,

now appears to be heading towards full blown

military dictatorship.

[speaking French].

[Mariana van Zeller] So the president is still being

detained by the military?

[Baba Toure] Yes.

The president are detained by the militaries.

[Mariana van Zeller] Baba Toure is our local producer,

who's originally from Mali.

[phone chiming]

[Baba Toure] Sorry, sorry.

[Mariana van Zeller] Are you getting a lot of messages

from your family and people?

[Baba Toure] Yeah. Yeah.

- Worried? - I get, yes.

[Baba Toure] Since yesternight, my family called me.

[Mariana van Zeller] Mm-hmm.

[Baba Toure] Friends, they try to know,

they try to know if I'm fine, if everything is good.

Everybody is worried, yeah.

[Mariana van Zeller] Check these out, the ones responsible

for the coup, yeah?

[Baba Toure] Yeah.

[Mariana van Zeller] I've been a journalist for over 25 years and

this is the first time I've been trapped inside my own story.

Overnight, airspace has been shut down,

and land borders have been closed.

That leaves us in a tight spot.

We came here with army security provided by

President Bazoum's government.

And now that his government is gone,

so is our security.

We're in a small hotel in the desert,

a 500 mile drive from the international airport in

the capital, glued to the tv watching events unfold.

[cheering]

[Mariana van Zeller] This coup is a deep shock for the country

and for the U.S.

It was only four months ago that Antony Blinken made

the first ever official visit by a Secretary of State to Niger.

[Antony Blinken] Today, I announce nearly $150 million

in new humanitarian assistance.

[Mariana van Zeller] What does it mean that only

months later, this, "Model of democracy,"

has been overthrown?

[reporter] Niger was in the process of shrugging off

a reputation as part of the, "Coup-club," countries in

this part of Africa.

[Mariana van Zeller] Rumors are swirling about

what really motivated the coup.

Did General Tchiani, the leader of the presidential guards,

take action because he'd heard he was about to be replaced?

Was president Bazoum to blame for fostering such close ties

to France, which ruled Niger as a colony until 1960

and maintained an unpopular military presence?

One of the first acts of violence to be broadcast is

the riot where coup supporters chant,

"Down with France," as they tried to set fire to

its embassy in the capital.

[cheering]

[reporter] Elsewhere in the capital,

they hold aloft the Russian flag.

[Mariana van Zeller] Or was this the work of Putin's Russia,

a country that has much to gain from Niger's break

with France and the U.S.?

[reporter] Tailors in Niger's capital busy making

more Russian flags to meet increased demand.

[Mariana van Zeller] Again and again,

Putin has attempted to use the instability

in the region to his advantage.

The Sahel has experienced seven coups in just three years,

ushering a new generation of

military strongmen into Putin's orbit.

He's hosted them at conferences in Moscow and

provided Wagner mercenary troops to help them fight

terrorists and maintain control.

[reporter] Wagner and Russia's stock seem to be

rising in West Africa.

[speaking foreign language].

[reporter] "All the Africans know that Putin is

ready to save us," this man says.

[Mariana van Zeller] In exchange, Russia has obtained

valuable mining contracts to extract the Sahel's many

natural resources, including gold.

There is a concern that Putin might send troops to prop up

the coup leaders, an action that could spark a civil war.

It's also possible that terrorist groups could exploit

these chaotic days after the coup to stage

their next big attack.

[automated voice] You are in the meeting now.

- Hi, guys. - Hey, everyone.

[Mariana van Zeller] Mariana here.

I think, at this point, we would all feel much better if

we're actually discussing plans for our extraction,

in case there is in fact a military evacuation.

[Mariana van Zeller] Yeah. We understand all that.

We just want to know, if violence breaks out where

we are right now, what is the plan?

[Mariana van Zeller] So what exactly is it that you

guys can do for us?

What exactly is your role?

[Mariana van Zeller] Yeah. So that's what,

we sort of want to have those, where would that be?

When would that be and where?

What, what's that point?

And is there a plan already being set in motion?

We're missing a little bit of a sense of urgency

or plan, pre-planning, so we're not stuck in a war if

military intervention starts.

[Mariana van Zeller] Yeah, but do you guys have any idea

where that is?

Do, any, any idea, any idea where that would be?

What's that safe location?

Any, any idea?

[Mariana van Zeller] I think the most troubling part of it all is

the fact that we're stuck here.

They say it's, it'll be, at least,

another week before, um, there's,

they open up the airspace.

Maybe more.

So we have no idea how long we're gonna be stuck here.

Stuck in our little Agadez hotel,

I find myself fighting two impulses.

The first, to get out of the country as soon as possible,

as there's a real chance of violence breaking out.

The second impulse is to do what we've come here to do.

We wanted to see the situation,

so we've actually been out and about today.

Things are pretty calm here.

Niamey, in the capital, is not the same.

They've been burning buildings.

There've been a lot of protests,

both supporting the coup and against the coup.

A contact says a former member of a terror group has agreed to

meet with me, but only in a location of his choosing,

and that means leaving the relative safety of our hotel.

I'm hopeful this man has insight into how these terror groups,

the gold trade, and the coup are all intertwined.

We're looking for this blue door,

somewhere around this neighborhood.

But, really, I have no idea what I'm walking into.

[♪ suspenseful music plays]

[knocking]

[knocking]

[♪ suspenseful music plays]

[Mariana van Zeller] Okay.

[Mariana van Zeller] How old were you

when you joined the group?

[Mariana van Zeller] Zakat is one of the pillars of Islam,

a charitable offering required of Muslims each year.

But in this case, what Moustapha describes,

is more akin to a shakedown.

[Mariana van Zeller] Moustapha explains that some of the gold

is used as currency in Niger.

The rest is sent to Dubai where it's traded for cash and used to

purchase goods that are then imported back into the country.

[Mariana van Zeller] As we head back to our hotel,

it strikes me that he's wrong about one point.

Not everything will come to a halt.

If I learned anything over the years,

it's that black markets thrive in instability.

The lack of opportunities will only send more young men

to the mines or into the arms of terrorist groups.

Instability breeds more instability,

especially in a region like the Sahel,

which sits atop a treasure trove of untapped natural resources.

Gold, yes.

But also oil, uranium, and rare earth minerals.

This coup is part of a much larger story about

resources and power.

Who's got them?

Who wants them?

And what people are willing to do to get them?

[Mariana van Zeller] So the West African state leaders are

discussing the situation in Niger.

And one of the possibilities is military intervention,

which obviously is really bad news,

because if things get violent here and if the war breaks out,

we wanna be sure that there is an evacuation plan in place.

We went to the airport yesterday, as well,

to see if they had any news on possible planes leaving.

You know, the airspace is still closed, so nothing there.

I think, at this point, we just wanna be proactive and

do as much as we can.

[reporter] We begin the day with the possibility of war in Niger

still very much on the table.

[Omar Alieu Touray] Direct the community to activate

the ECOWAS Standby Force with all its elements immediately.

[Deane Smith] What I would say is that we are in

the best position to being within Niger.

[Mariana van Zeller] Mm-hmm.

[Deane Smith] Because we're away from the capital.

We're away from the major towns.

Obviously, we're here in Agadez.

[Mariana van Zeller] Mm-hmm.

Yeah, but we're also away from an, an exit if...

[Deane Smith] Yeah. Totally. Yeah.

[Mariana van Zeller] When that news came out that

the West African states have given the coup leaders

seven days to bring back President Bazoum,

my thought process is we have seven days to

figure out how to get out of this country.

What happens if there's violence at the door of our hotel?

Is it safe?

Are the roads, has, do you know anyone, Baba,

who's done this journey to the border with Nigeria?

Is it at all safe for us to go?

[Baba Toure] I cannot confirm the roads are safe.

[Mariana van Zeller] We'd arrived in Agadez by plane,

because thieves and terrorists made it too dangerous to travel

by road without heavy security.

[crew] What do you guys reckon?

You think we'll be staying put or heading to Niamey?

[crew] I don't know.

Both are sounding equally unappealing with every day.

[Mariana van Zeller] But we had only planned to stay for

four days, quick enough to get in and out

without drawing too much attention.

Instead we're stuck.

The most visible foreigners in the city.

And a tempting target for a militant group or kidnappers.

The question now is whether to take our chances on the roads

and make our way to a neighboring country,

which would require traveling without a military escort.

So, ironically, after covering black market operators

for most of my career,

our best hope of escape from Agadez

may be to hire one to smuggle us out.

So we're, we're waiting for this guy who works in

the gold business to come and meet us here at the hotel.

It's very interesting 'cause there's a photo of the president

in a lot of these business establishments.

There's always a photo of the president.

Oh, he's here actually.

[in French] How are you?

[Mariana van Zeller] I'm hopeful that Ismael might be

our ticket out of Niger.

[Mariana van Zeller] Ismael tells us stories,

as most everybody in Agadez does,

about recent murders and atrocities he's witnessed

on the road.

[gunshots]

Wow. You can hear the shots.

[speaking foreign language].

[Mariana van Zeller] Wow.

They were coming your way, so you went to the ground.

Wow.

It's not the most hopeful starting point when looking

for a viable escape route.

[speaking French]

[Mariana van Zeller] Hmm.

[Mariana van Zeller] For Ismael, traveling with a group of

Americans would make a dangerous trip even more so.

But providing security isn't something we can offer,

and without it, we run the risk of becoming

another cautionary tale on someone's phone.

[Mariana van Zeller] The more we explore possible

exit strategies, none of them look particularly safe.

The funny thing is, we're only two miles from Base 201,

but despite many requests,

the U.S. Military won't allow us to take shelter at the base,

perhaps because the U.S. is in the middle of its own crisis.

[Antony Blinken] We are condemning the actions that

have taken place in Niger.

[Mariana van Zeller] So far, the State Department has refused to

label the action a coup, which would legally require

the U.S. to withdraw financial aid.

There are concerns that that might push the new government

into the waiting arms of Putin.

[Antony Blinken] Our economic and security partnership

with Niger, which is significant,

hundreds of millions of dollars,

depends on the continuation of the democratic governance

and constitutional order that has been disrupted.

[Mariana van Zeller] That's the thing about a coup like this,

it casts a spell of uncertainty over everything,

big and small.

For the people of Niger, it's unclear who will rule

and if the chaos will spread.

For the U.S., President Bazoum's ouster means losing our closest

African ally in the war on terror.

And for us, stuck in our hotel,

it means trying to stay positive.

Because while European governments are evacuating

their citizens as fast as they can,

the U.S. won't declare it a coup,

and that means they won't help us get out.

[Mariana van Zeller] We've been spending days on end,

trying to find seats on humanitarian planes which could

take us to the capital, Niamey,

but even those planes in Agadez remain grounded.

And these are supposedly the last planes

that are taking Europeans out.

And they're already on the runway about to leave and he was

able to get us all seats, but the problem is that we're

very far away so we're not gonna be able to make those flights.

I just got a message from the,

our U.S. military contact at the base here.

[Paul] Mm-hmm.

Does he say that they're anticipating

the evacuation order to come?

[Mariana van Zeller] Uh, "If the evacuation order is given,

we are standing by to receive the order to come get you all

and bring us back to the airbase here."

Okay.

- So it's still an if. - Okay.

[Mariana van Zeller] I mean, the Italians and the Germans

have all given evacuation orders.

Mm-hmm.

[text tone]

What's happening?

[Mariana van Zeller] It says, "No, nobody has made any calls

to consolidate Americans yet."

[bleep].

We've got five more days before ECOWAS's ultimatum ends and

possible military intervention by the West African states.

Mali and Burkina Faso have said that they are ready to come and

fight and defend the military coup.

So a civil war could break out at any point,

and we're in a race against time for this evacuation window

that's happening, except that in our case,

we're 1,000 kilometers away from the capital, Niamey,

where those planes are leaving at this moment.

I think we've all felt very emotional.

Just the uncertainty of it all has really took, taken a toll.

And they're really just missing our families,

and that moment that's gonna happen very, very soon.

We're gonna be able to hug um, our loved ones,

is what's keeping us going.

[phone dialing]

[automated voice] You are in the meeting now.

[Mariana van Zeller] Hey, guys. We've got the whole team here.

[Frank Harrison] All right. Just briefed the team

before you came on board.

We'll bring you up to speed, about...

- Yes. - Wow.

[Mariana van Zeller] That's, that's incredible news.

I think we're all very happy.

But it seems like it's firm, it's firm.

Like this is actually happening.

We're actually sure that this is happening now, right?

We don't wanna give false hopes again to the team.

[Mariana van Zeller] With all other doors closed,

a private extraction company will try to

land a plane to get us out.

[♪ dramatic music]

[Mariana van Zeller] Everyone in the car?

[Paul] Yes. Let's pull out please.

[Deane Smith] Okay. Let's go.

Nice and steady.

[Deane Smith] Okay. Let's go.

Nice and steady.

[Mariana van Zeller] The plane's supposed to land in 20 minutes.

So our police escort didn't show up and there's a curfew

that goes until 5:00 a.m.

So today is actually Independence Day here in Niger.

They've reported protests happening around the country

in support of the coup, and, apparently,

there's going to be a lot of anti-Western feelings around.

People are afraid of foreigners being a target.

So we were actually scared that because of this

Independence Day, that the plane wouldn't be able to land,

the airport here wouldn't be operational.

But it's supposed to land in 20 minutes.

It's been a really nerve-racking night.

[Paul] We've got a little bit of a roadblock coming up here.

[Mariana van Zeller] I think there's a full awareness amongst

our whole team that we are the lucky ones.

We've had a very uncertain one week.

But for the people of Niger,

for all the incredible people that we've met along the way,

it's an uncertain future

and, you know, one without democracy

and possible violence on the way.

[Kiari Liman-Tinguiri] I'm very concerned about,

about the future and I'm, I'm very concerned for

the generations to come.

[Mariana van Zeller] So the airport is on our right and

I'm trying to see if I can see the plane coming in anywhere.

[♪ dramatic music]

[Paul] We're just getting out... on its way back.

[♪ dramatic music]

[jet engine rumbling]

[Mariana van Zeller] We're getting in.

Thank you.

The captain is checking with his ops.

Okay. He said we're good to leave.

Seems like we're good.

[♪ dramatic music]

[Mariana van Zeller] I spent much of the last week

waiting for this moment.

I think I was more scared than I wanted to admit.

The relief of finally getting out hits me,

along with the guilt of knowing that leaving

is not an option for everyone.

[tapping]

Somewhere down there are the gold miners I met,

and the people of Agadez,

and President Bazoum and his family,

still being held captive by unelected men who hold his fate

and the fate of a country in their hands.

[♪ emotional music]

[Kiari Liman-Tinguiri] This is something very,

very scary and very worrisome for the generation to come.

If I tell you that I see a bright future,

I wouldn't be honest.

I don't see any, for the time being,

I don't see any bright future.

Yeah.

[♪ intense music]

Captioned by Cotter Media Group.