I | INTRODUCTION |
Niger
(country) (French République du Niger), republic in western
Africa, bounded on the north by Algeria and Libya, on the east by Chad, on the
south by Nigeria and Benin, and on the west by Burkina Faso and Mali. It has a
total area of 1,267,000 sq km (489,200 sq mi).
II | LAND AND RESOURCES |
Niger may be divided into three zones, the
northern, central, and southern. The northern zone, covering more than half of
the total area of the republic, lies within the Sahara. It is a highland region
of plateaus and mountains and, except in scattered oases, has little vegetation.
In this zone is Monts Bagzane (2,022 m/6,634 ft), the highest elevation in the
country. The central zone, known as the Sahel, is semiarid and lightly wooded.
The southern zone is a fertile, forested area that benefits from adequate
rainfall and, in the southwest, from the periodic overflow of the Niger River,
virtually the only river in the country. On the southeast, the nation borders on
one of the largest lakes of the continent, the shallow Lake Chad.
A | Climate |
The climate of Niger is hot and, in most
areas, dry. Rainfall, negligible in the north, increases to 813 mm (32 in) a
year in the south. In the south a rainy season lasts from June to October. The
average annual temperature at Niamey, in the southeast, is 29°C (85°F).
B | Plants and Animals |
The northern desert of Niger has little
vegetation. In the south are extensive savanna grasslands and, in the lowlands,
a variety of trees, including baobab, tamarind, kepok, and a species of
mahogany. Animal life includes elephant, buffalo, antelope, giraffe, and
lion.
C | Natural Resources |
Niger has diverse mineral resources, most of
which remain to be exploited. Large deposits of high-grade uranium ore are found
in the north. Other minerals present include coal, tin, gold, phosphate, iron
ore, and copper.
D | Environmental Issues |
Soil erosion and desertification resulting
from overgrazing and poor land management have reduced the productivity of the
country’s farmland. Burning wood and other traditional fuels accounts for 80
percent of the country’s energy consumption, and the need for firewood is
contributing to deforestation.
Niger’s poorly developed infrastructure
contributes to the spread of infectious diseases. Only 61 percent (1990-1998
estimate) of Niger’s population has access to safe water, and only 19 percent
(1990-1998 estimate) of the population is serviced by adequate sewage
systems.
About 7.7 percent (1997) of Niger’s land
is officially protected. Although Niger has banned hunting throughout the
country, rampant poaching seriously threatens wildlife populations.
Niger has ratified international treaties
protecting biodiversity, endangered species, wetlands, and the ozone layer.
III | POPULATION |
The majority of the population of Niger is
composed of black peoples, primarily Hausa and Djerma, who are subsistence
farmers in the south. Of the remaining quarter, most are Tuareg and Fulani,
peoples who follow a nomadic life.
A | Population Characteristics |
The population of Niger is 13,272,679 (2008
estimate). The overall population density is only 11 persons per sq km (27 per
sq mi), but approximately 90 percent of the population lives near the southern
border.
B | Political Divisions and Principal Cities |
Niger is divided into one capital district
and seven departments, which are subdivided into districts and communes. Niamey
is the capital, and largest city; Zinder, Maradi, Tahoua, and Agadez are the
other principal towns.
C | Religion and Language |
Muslims, most adhering to Sunni Islam, make
up about 90 percent of Niger’s population. Most of the remainder adheres to
traditional beliefs; less than 1 percent is Christian.
French is the official language, but Hausa
is the language of local trade. Other African languages, such as Fulfulde,
Tamachek, and Djerma, are also used extensively.
D | Education |
Schooling in Niger is free and compulsory
between the ages of 7 and 12. Because of a shortage of teachers and the wide
dispersion of the population, however, only 44 percent of primary school-age
children receive an education. In the 2000 school year 656,600 pupils attended
primary schools. Secondary schools enrolled only 7 percent of the relevant age
group. Advanced training is given at the University of Niamey (1971).
E | Culture |
Municipalities in Niger have state-run
libraries, and several private organizations maintain libraries. The National
Museum of Niger, in Niamey, includes both a library and a museum. Islamic
influences from North Africa have had a powerful effect on the culture of
Niger.
IV | ECONOMY |
Agriculture employs 8 percent of Niger’s
labor force, which includes many subsistence farmers and pastoralists. In spite
of the general aridity of the country, agriculture provides 40 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP), second only to services, which provide 43 percent.
Agriculture has largely recovered from the effects of the disastrous Sahel
drought of the early 1970s. Manufacturing enterprises are mostly very small. In
1993 the national budget included $400 million in expenditures and only $188
million in revenues.
A | Agriculture and Fishing |
Livestock raising is the principal
agricultural activity. In 2006 the livestock population included 7.7 million
goats, 4.9 million sheep, and 2.4 million cattle. Cowpeas and cotton are
cultivated for export. Millet, sorghum, cassava, pulses, and rice are grown for
local consumption. Fishing is conducted in Lake Chad and the Niger River, and
the catch is consumed locally.
B | Mining and Manufacturing |
Niger has tin, gold, and uranium mining
operations. Large deposits of uranium are located in northern Niger; these
reserves, which are estimated at more than 160,000 metric tons, were being
exploited at a rate of 3,000 metric tons per year in the early 1990s. Uranium
accounts for more than three-fourths of the country’s annual mineral exports.
Salt is also mined in Niger in small quantities. Industry is limited mainly to
food processing and construction.
C | Currency and Banking |
The unit of currency in Niger is the
CFA franc (522.90 CFA francs equal U.S.$1; 2006 average). It is issued by
the Central Bank of the West African States. Several commercial and development
banks operate in the country. An exchange rate of 50 CFA francs to 1 French
franc was in force from 1948 to 1994, when the CFA franc was devalued by 50
percent.
D | Foreign Trade |
In 2003 Niger exported goods amounting to
$209 million, with uranium accounting for the bulk of the value. Imports totaled
$558 million. Two-thirds of all exports go to France. Other major purchasers of
exports are Côte d’Ivoire, and Italy. Chief sources of imports are France,
Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, China, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Japan.
E | Transportation and Communications |
Niger has 14,565 km (9,050 mi) of roads,
of which about one-third are paved. International airports serve Niamey and
Agadez, and the country has more than 20 smaller airfields.
Government-controlled radio and television services broadcast in several
languages. There were an average 127 radio receivers and 39 television sets for
every 1,000 inhabitants in 2000. A daily newspaper, Le Sahel, is
published in Niamey.
V | GOVERNMENT |
After a military coup in 1974, the Supreme
Military Council, headed by a president, became Niger’s main governing body. A
new constitution approved by referendum in September 1989 nominally returned the
country to civilian rule. In 1991 this constitution was suspended and a
transitional government established. Another constitution was ratified in 1992.
After another military coup in January 1996, the National Assembly was
dissolved, and a new constitution, designed to consolidate executive power in
order to avoid deadlock between the president and the legislature, was approved
by public referendum. Following a 1999 coup, this constitution was amended to
balance the powers of the executive and legislative branches of government once
again.
A | Executive and Legislature |
The president, elected for a maximum of two
five-year terms, is the head of state. The prime minister, appointed by the
president, is the head of government. The legislative body is the National
Assembly, composed of 113 directly elected representatives who serve five-year
terms.
B | Judiciary |
District magistrates’ courts, labor courts,
and justices of the peace are located throughout Niger. The Court of State
Security and an appeals court sit in Niamey. The High Court of Justice,
empowered to try government officials, was authorized in 1991.
C | Health and Welfare |
Niger, in cooperation with world health
services, is attempting to control widespread diseases such as yaws and
helminthiasis. The government enforces the provisions of some labor and health
legislation, but most welfare services are left to the complex, traditional
tribal and family social system. In 2008 the average life expectancy at birth
was 44 years; the infant mortality rate was 115 deaths per 1,000 live births in
2008.
D | Defense |
In 2004 the armed services of Niger
included an army of 5,200 members and a small air force. Paramilitary forces
numbered 5,400 personnel. Niger has bilateral defense agreements with
France.
VI | HISTORY |
During the Middle Ages the Niger region was
on the central caravan route from North Africa to the Hausa states and the
empires of Mali and Songhai. The area was therefore penetrated early by Muslim
missionaries. The Hausa states were dominant in southern Niger from before the
10th century until the early 19th century, when they were conquered by the
Fulani under Usuman dan Fodio. Songhai was for almost a thousand years the
supreme power in the western part of the country, while the Kanem-Bornu Empire
exerted a powerful influence in the east. In the 14th century the Tuareg
populated the Aïr Plateau, where they subsequently established the sultanate of
Agadez.
The first Europeans to enter the area were
Scottish explorer Mungo Park in 1795 and 1805 and German explorers Heinrich
Barth and Eduard Vogel in 1850. The French occupied the area about 1890. It was
made a military territory in 1900, an autonomous territory in 1922, and an
overseas territory in 1946. Proclaimed an autonomous republic of the French
Community in 1958, Niger became fully independent on August 3, 1960.
In 1960 Hamani Diori was elected president
by the legislature. In 1964 the government crushed a rebellion aimed against the
Diori regime, and in April 1965 the president survived an assassination attempt.
He was reelected in 1965 and 1970. Niger was one of six sub-Saharan nations
affected by a five-year drought, which was broken by summer rains in 1973.
Accused of corruption and of mishandling the famine, Diori was overthrown in a
military coup d’état in April 1974. After the coup, Niger was ruled by a Supreme
Military Council, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Seyni Kountché. His first
priority was economic recovery after the drought, and to that effect a new
agreement with France was concluded in 1977.
Plots and coup attempts occurred during
Kountché’s first years in power, but by 1980 he was confident enough to release
former president Diori from detention. Most cabinet posts in the government were
gradually filled by civilians, but a drop in uranium prices left Niger’s economy
in a severely weakened condition. In November 1987 Kountché died of a brain
tumor and was succeeded in the presidency by Ali Seybou, the army chief of
staff. Seybou was reelected president in 1989 after introducing a new
constitution that returned Niger to civilian rule under a single-party system. A
wave of strikes and demonstrations in 1990 led him to legalize opposition
parties. The same year, the nomadic Tuaregs of northern Niger began to rise up
in favor of an independent Tuareg state. The Tuaregs, many of whom had left
Niger in the early 1980s to escape a prolonged drought and had recently returned
in large numbers, claimed that Seybou’s government had failed in its promises to
adequately aid the returning nomads. After violent clashes with Nigerien forces
the separatist movement became a full-scale rebellion. A constitutional
conference, convened in July 1991, stripped Seybou of his powers and established
a transitional government, headed by André Salifou. A constitution instituting a
multiparty electoral system was ratified in December 1992. In elections in early
1993 Mahamane Ousmane of the Alliance des Forces du Changement (AFC;
Alliance of the Forces of Change), a nine-party coalition, was elected
president, and AFC candidates won a majority of the seats in parliament. In late
1994 the cabinet was dismissed by a vote of no confidence in the National
Assembly. Ousmane called for legislative elections in January 1995. A coalition
of four opposition parties won a majority in the National Assembly, with the
Movement National pour une Société de Développement (MNSD; National
Movement for a Development Society) taking the largest number of seats. Friction
between Ousmane and Prime Minister Hama Amadou, head of the MNSD, soon created a
governmental deadlock. This slowed the implementation of an April 1995 peace
accord signed with the northern Tuareg rebels.
In January 1996 Colonel Ibrahim Bare
Mainassara seized power in a military coup, arrested President Ousmane and Prime
Minister Amadou, and banned all political parties. Mainassara cited the yearlong
deadlock between Ousmane and Amadou as the reason for his coup. Ousmane and
Amadou were released from prison in early February. A new constitution,
consolidating the president’s power and limiting the prime minister’s role, was
quickly drafted and approved in a May public vote in which only 35 percent of
the nation’s registered voters participated. The ban on political parties was
lifted, and Mainassara announced his candidacy for president in upcoming
elections; Ousmane also declared his candidacy. In July Mainassara won
presidential elections under suspicious circumstances. The independent electoral
committee was fired during the two-day elections and replaced with a committee
handpicked by Mainassara. Several opposition candidates, including Ousmane, were
placed under house arrest.
Mainassara failed to garner a broad base of
political support. In April 1999 Mainassara’s presidential guard unit
assassinated him and assumed control of the country. The coup leaders drafted
constitutional amendments that restored the constitutional balance between the
executive and legislative branches and absolved the participants in both the
1996 and the 1999 coups. The revised constitution was approved by referendum,
and presidential and legislative elections were held in October and November
1999. MNSD candidate Tandja Mamadou was elected president, and the MNSD again
took the largest number of seats in the National Assembly. Mamadou was reelected
in December 2004.
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