Mariana van Zeller

Ten worst days of my life.

That's the only reason that you allowed us to go, because it is one of the most dangerous places on Earth.

You've got Boko Haram and ISIS and al-Qaeda all operating there.

You've got kidnapping squads.

And as an American, showing up with no security is not a good idea.

So we'd been given...

The military, the local military or the government gave us military escort that would follow us wherever we went.

So we went out into the mines.

We drove for eight hours and slept out in the desert, in the open desert, so that we could film inside the mines and interview the miners that are illegally mining for gold that is actually funding part of the terrorist groups.

So when we came back from sleeping overnight in the desert, we came back to this town called Agadez.

And when we arrived, we found out that there had been a coup, and immediately they removed the military security from us.

So we were left with no protection in a run-down hotel with, again, no protection around us.

And no way out.

So the borders were closed.

The airspace was closed.

And suddenly they started evacuating people from all over the world, but from the capital.

And we were a three-day drive to the capital.

And we couldn't even go because it's too dangerous.

So we were literally trapped in one of the most dangerous corners of the world.

And it was scary as shit.