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The wild bunch - Nigeria's tricycle taxis

Senior editor, Africa

"Keke" tricycle taxis in northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri Obinna Anyadike/IRIN

Senior editor, Africa

    MAIDUGURI

    There are swarms of them in most Nigerian cities. Yellow, noisy and slightly dangerous, auto rickshaws provide cheap public transport - and a livelihood for tens of thousands of their drivers.

    The motorized three-wheeler taxis are known as “Keke-NAPEP” – a combination of the Yoruba word for bicycle and the acronym for a 2001 National Poverty Eradication Programme, in a neat onomatopoeic package.

    In northern Nigerian cities, Keke have replaced “Okadas”, the popular motorbike taxis banned in the wake of ride-by shootings by the jihadist group Boko Haram.

    Read on and watch a Keke ride through Maiduguri here.

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