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Page last updated at 09:16 GMT, Saturday, 3 July 2010 10:16 UK

Tribesman: 'We can't sustain our way of life'

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A drought which has left more than half of Niger's 15 million people needing food aid is also threatening the region's desert nomads.

For thousands of years more than a million fiercely independent Tuareg tribesmen have roamed the Saharan wastelands with their animals, living to their own rules and traditions.

Now, with water holes drying up, many are giving up this life and fleeing to the cities. Correspondent Mike Thomson reports from Niger.

This is an extended version of the broadcast piece.


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