Niger
Third-longest river in Africa, 4,185 km/2,600 mi. It rises in the highlands bordering Sierra Leone and Guinea, flows northeast through Mali, then southeast through Niger and Nigeria to an inland delta on the Gulf of Guinea. Its total catchment area is 1.5 million sq km/579,150 sq mi. The flow is sluggish and the river frequently floods its banks, though it is navigable for most of the year from the coast upstream to Lokoja. It was navigated by the Scottish explorer Mungo Park in 1795–1806, who was drowned in the river near Bussa.
Course The headwaters of the Niger rise in the Guinea Highlands, along the northern borders of Sierra Leone and Liberia, and flow some 1,500 km/930 mi northeast through Guinea into Mali, where at the town of Bourem it turns southeast for 1,400 km/870 mi, to its confluence with the Benue River at Lokoja in Nigeria. The combined river then flows 450 km/280 mi due south to reach the sea via numerous distributaries of the vast Niger Delta, the largest river delta in Africa, that covers 36,000 sq km/13,900 sq mi and extends along the coastline for some 190 km/120 mi. |
Upper Niger The upper Niger once formed a large inland lake in the area of southern Mali, and has, in geological terms, only recently become joined with the lower Niger. The inland basin still remains as an area through which the river meanders via many channels and lakes between Ke Macina and Timbuktu. |
Rainfall The upper basin is well watered, but the rainfall declines from 2,000 mm/79 in in the headwaters to 1,040 mm/41 in near Bamako and to less than 250 mm/9 in at Timbuktu on the edge of the Sahara Desert. |
Dams The rapids near Bussa (Nigeria) were harnessed by the building of the Niger Dam at Kainji in 1968, creating a lake, which supplies large amounts of hydroelectric power, sufficient for nearly half Nigeria's requirements. Further hydroelectric projects are located at Jebba nearly 100 km/62 mi downstream, and at Shiroro on the Kaduna River immediately above its confluence with the Niger floodplain. |
Oilfields The Niger Delta represents a vast accumulation of river sediment over 10,000 m/32,808 ft deep which has gradually subsided since the Cretaceous period (over 100 million years ago). Within these sediments petroleum has formed, and the area has become one of the world's major oilfields covering an area from Warri in the west to Port Harcourt in the east, and wells have been drilled offshore. |
Peoples of the inland basin Many of the early medieval empires of West Africa were focused around the inland basin of the upper Niger, which has a long history of trans-Saharan trade and contact. The early empires of Ghana and Mali, at the peak of their power in the 15th century, were Mande (or Mandingo) kingdoms of the upper Niger, who were traders of gold and slaves from the southern forests and savannahs for salt from Taoudenni (in present-day Mali). Early seats of Muslim learning were established along the north at Jenne (or Djenne) and Timbuktu. The power of the Mande was succeeded in the 15th and 16th centuries by the rise of the Songhai along the middle Niger towards Gao (in present-day Mali). |
European exploration Mungo Park explored the upper reaches of the river from Gambia between 1795 and 1806, and another 100 years passed before the French extended their control from Senegal to Timbuktu. The course of the lower Niger remained unknown to European explorers for many years, and the popular view was that the upper Niger flowed eventually into the Nile. In 1830 the Lander brothers followed the river from Bussa to the sea, but only in 1850 did Heinrich Barth sail from Timbuktu to Bussa. |
Niger
Landlocked country in northwest Africa, bounded north by Algeria and Libya, east by Chad, south by Nigeria and Benin, and west by Burkina Faso and Mali.
Government
The 1992 constitution, as revised in 1999, provides for a multiparty system. The president is directly elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term by proportional representation. The president is both head of state and government, but appoints a prime minister with whom some executive responsibilites are shared.
History
Niger was part of ancient and medieval empires in
Africa. European explorers arrived in the late 18th century, and
Tuareg people invaded the area from the north. France seized it from the Tuaregs in 1904 and made it part of
French West Africa, although fighting continued until 1922. It became a French overseas territory in 1946 and an autonomous republic within the French Community in 1958.
Independence
Niger achieved full independence in 1960 and was run for 14 years by Hamani Diori, who as elected president headed a single-party regime. Maintaining close relations with France, Diori seemed to have established one of the most stable regimes in Africa, and the discovery of uranium deposits promised a sound economic future.
Military takeover
A severe drought 1968–74 resulted in widespread civil disorder, and 1974 Diori was ousted by the army led by Lt-Col Seyni Kountché, the chief of staff. Kountché suspended the constitution and headed a military government as president until his death in 1987. He tried to restore the economy, negotiated a cooperation agreement with France in 1977, and later released political prisoners, including the former president. He was succeeded as president by Col Ali Saibou, who faced student and trade union demands for political liberalization.
In 1990 the government announced plans for a multiparty political system and in July 1991 a constitutional conference opened, attended by representatives of all political views. Saibou's executive powers were removed in August 1991 and a 15-member High Council of the Republic transitional government took over, but collapsed in March 1992. The introduction of multiparty politics was approved by referendum in December 1992.
First free elections
The left-wing Alliance of the Forces for Change (AFC) won the 1993 multiparty assembly elections and Mahamane Ousmane was elected president and Mahamdou Issoufou prime minister. The new government reached a partial peace agreement in 1994 with Tuareg rebels who had been fighting for independence in the north.
After the National Movement for a Development Society (MNSD) won the 1995 assembly elections, Hama Amadou became prime minister, but in January 1996 the military, led by Ibrahim Barré Mainassara, seized power in a coup. A civilian government, headed by Boukary Adji (and later by Amadou Boubacar), was soon installed, but with Mainassara as president, following a disputed election. In December 1997 Ibrahim Hassane Mayaki formed a new government and in 1998 a peace agreement was signed with the last of the 15 rebel groups not to have signed a ceasefire accord. In April 1999, Mainsassara was assassinated by soldiers in the presidential guard, whose commander, Daouda Mallam Wanke, became head of state. But a referendum in July 1999 approved power-sharing between the army and civilians, and there was a return to civilian rule following elections in November 1999, with Tandja Mamadou of the National Movement for the Development Society (MNDS) elected president, and Hama Amadou as prime minister.
One of the world's poorest countries, Niger has been hit by a succession of droughts across the Sahel and locust plagues, leading to a food crisis and famine in 2005.
