Niger

Overview

Niger is a vast landlocked Sahelian republic of about 1.27 million km² — over 80% of it Sahara — named for the Niger River; its ~29 million people, among the world's poorest, cluster in the south and west around the capital Niamey. The Hausa are the largest ethnic group (~56%), alongside Zarma-Songhay, Tuareg, Fulani and Kanuri; the population is 99% Muslim.

History

The region has been inhabited since Paleolithic times (Green Sahara rock art, Kiffian and Tenerian cultures), and later hosted segments of great Sahelian states: the Mali and Songhai empires, the Sultanate of Aïr at Agadez, the Kanem–Bornu Empire near Lake Chad, the Hausa city-states, the Sultanate of Damagaram (Zinder), and the fringe of the Sokoto Caliphate. During the Scramble for Africa, France conquered the area with notorious brutality — the 1899 Voulet–Chanoine mission massacred entire towns — creating the Military Territory of Niger in 1904 and a distinct colony in 1922, and crushing Tuareg resistance in the 1916–17 Kaocen revolt.

Independent on 3 August 1960 under Hamani Diori, Niger was a one-party state aligned with France (whose uranium mines at Arlit underpinned the economy) until a drought-and-corruption-driven coup in 1974 brought Seyni Kountché to power; he ruled until his death in 1987. His successor Ali Saibou yielded to a National Conference and multiparty Third Republic in 1993, but instability brought coups in 1996 (Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, assassinated 1999) and 2010. Mamadou Tandja's attempt to extend his rule triggered the 2010 coup, after which the Seventh Republic (2010) produced orderly elections: Mahamadou Issoufou served two terms and handed power to Mohamed Bazoum in 2021 — Niger's first democratic transfer between elected presidents.

Later history and present status

On 26 July 2023 the presidential guard under General Abdourahamane Tiani overthrew Bazoum; the junta (CNSP) expelled French forces, quit ECOWAS alongside Mali and Burkina Faso to form the Alliance of Sahel States, and in March 2025 swore in Tiani as president under a five-year transitional charter. The economy depends on subsistence agriculture, uranium, and growing oil exports via a pipeline to Benin, while the country battles jihadist insurgencies spilling in from Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.