The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 letter word TUAREG
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
T
U
A
R
E
G
More clues leading to the result TUAREG
- North Africans are in small boat
- Title of respect accepted by sailor, say, in foreign language
- North African Arab group historically dividing sheep
- Berber outrage, nothing less, outrageous!
- Nomadic people from Niger automatically returned
- African travellers are boarding boat
- North African sheep stuffed by old group of Arabs
- Nomadic lot dwell in vessel
- Timbuktu, a region including nomadic people
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "North African" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case north african = tuareg.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.