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Like hundreds of other pro-Turkish fighters, Omar left northern Syria for mineral-rich Niger last year, joining Syrian mercenaries sent to the West African nation by a private Turkish military company.
"The main reason I left is because life is hard in Syria," fighter Omar, 24, told AFP on message app WhatsApp from Niger.
In northern Syria, "there are no job opportunities besides joining an armed faction and earning no more than 1,500 Turkish lira ($46) a month," Omar said, requesting, like others AFP interviewed, to be identified by a pseudonym for security reasons.
Analysts say Ankara has strong ties with the new military regime in Niamey, which has been in power since the July 2023 coup.
And in recent months, at least 1,000 fighters have been sent to Niger "to protect Turkish projects and interests," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
Omar, who supports his mother and three siblings, said since leaving his home in August, he has received a "very good" monthly salary of $1,500 for his work in the West African nation.
He hopes his earnings will help him start a small business and quit the battlefield after years of working as a fighter for a pro-Ankara faction.
Tens of thousands of young men have joined the ranks of jihadist factions and others loyal to Ankara in Syria's north and northwest, where four million people, half of them displaced, live in desperate conditions.
Omar said he was among the first batch of more than 200 fighters who left Syria's Turkish-controlled north in August for Niger.
He is now ready to return home after his six-month contract, renewed once, ended.
He and two other pro-Ankara Syrian fighters who spoke to AFP in recent weeks said they had enlisted for work in Niger with the Sultan Murad faction, one of Turkey's most loyal proxies in northern Syria.
They said they had signed six-month contracts at the faction's headquarters with the private firm SADAT International Defense Consultancy.
Layal Abou Rahal, with AFP
"The main reason I left is because life is hard in Syria," fighter Omar, 24, told AFP on message app WhatsApp from Niger.
In northern Syria, "there are no job opportunities besides joining an armed faction and earning no more than 1,500 Turkish lira ($46) a month," Omar said, requesting, like others AFP interviewed, to be identified by a pseudonym for security reasons.
Analysts say Ankara has strong ties with the new military regime in Niamey, which has been in power since the July 2023 coup.
And in recent months, at least 1,000 fighters have been sent to Niger "to protect Turkish projects and interests," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
Omar, who supports his mother and three siblings, said since leaving his home in August, he has received a "very good" monthly salary of $1,500 for his work in the West African nation.
He hopes his earnings will help him start a small business and quit the battlefield after years of working as a fighter for a pro-Ankara faction.
Tens of thousands of young men have joined the ranks of jihadist factions and others loyal to Ankara in Syria's north and northwest, where four million people, half of them displaced, live in desperate conditions.
Omar said he was among the first batch of more than 200 fighters who left Syria's Turkish-controlled north in August for Niger.
He is now ready to return home after his six-month contract, renewed once, ended.
He and two other pro-Ankara Syrian fighters who spoke to AFP in recent weeks said they had enlisted for work in Niger with the Sultan Murad faction, one of Turkey's most loyal proxies in northern Syria.
They said they had signed six-month contracts at the faction's headquarters with the private firm SADAT International Defense Consultancy.
Layal Abou Rahal, with AFP
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