Niger
Name
| Official name | Republic of Niger — République du Niger · Jamhuriyar Nijar |
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| Former names | The Colony of Niger of French West Africa (1922–58); the Military Territory of Niger (1900–22); the Republic of Niger of the French Community (1958–60); the sultanates of Agadez, Damagaram of Zinder and the Songhai and Bornu empires' provinces before the French |
| Demonym | Nigerien — to be told from the Nigerian of the neighbor |
| Meaning of the name | From the river Niger — the Tuareg gher n gheren, "river of rivers," by the usual reading, the Arabic maps' Nil of the Blacks and Ptolemy's Nigir, and not the Latin niger, black, though the coincidence gave the neighbors their name; the French pronunciation nee-ZHAIR |
| Motto | "Fraternité, Travail, Progrès" — fraternity, work, progress; on the arms |
Quick facts
| Capital | Niamey — the river town made the capital in 1926 in place of Zinder; about 1.5 million; the airport of the attacks and the mutiny of 2026 on its edge |
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| Largest cities | Niamey; Zinder, about 400,000, the Hausa capital of the sultans of Damagaram and the colony until 1926; Maradi, the trading city of the Nigerian border and the peanuts; Agadez, the Tuareg city of the desert and the caravans; Tahoua; Dosso of the Zarma; Arlit of the uranium; Diffa of Lake Chad and the Boko Haram years; Tillabéri of the war |
| Official languages | Hausa, the national language by the charter of 26 March 2025, the language of half the people and the markets of the south; French, the official language of the state since 1960, demoted to a "working language" with English by the same charter; Zarma-Songhai of the river and the capital, Tamasheq of the Tuareg, Fulfulde of the Fulani, Kanuri of the east, Arabic of the Sahara, Gourmanchéma, Toubou — ten national languages |
| Currency | West African CFA franc — XOF, F CFA; 100 centimes; pegged at 655.957 to the euro; about 600 to the U.S. dollar; the money of the eight countries of the West African union, the exit the Sahel alliance debates |
| Time zone | West Africa Time, UTC+1; no summer time |
| Calling code | +227 |
| Internet domain | .ne |
| ISO 3166 codes | NE · NER · 562 |
| Vehicle registration code | RN |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 220 V, 50 Hz; plug types A, B, C, D, E and F |
| Independence | 3 August 1960, from France — Hamani Diori the first president; the republic proclaimed 18 December 1958 within the French Community after the referendum of 28 September; the anniversary of 3 August kept since 1975 as the "Fête de l'arbre," the tree-planting day against the desert |
| National days | 3 August, Independence Day; 18 December, Republic Day, for 1958; 24 April, Concord Day, for the peace with the Tuareg rebels of 1995; 26 July, the day of the coup of 2023, marked by the junta since; 1 May; 1 January; Easter Monday and Christmas of the Christian few; the Eids, the Prophet's birthday, the Islamic new year and the Night of Power of the Muslim calendar |
| Constitution | The Transition Charter of 26 March 2025 — the Refoundation Charter of the junta, adopted after the national conference of February 2025, in force with the swearing-in of General Tiani as president for a "flexible" transition of five years to 2030, renewable by the security and the reforms, the political parties dissolved, the Consultative Council for the Refoundation of 90 in place of a parliament, Hausa the national language, the junta's "sovereignty" its creed; the Constitution of the Seventh Republic of 25 November 2010, suspended by the coup of 26 July 2023 and abolished, the first of 1960 and the six others between |
| Population | 17,138,707 at the census of 2012; about 28 million (2026 est.) — the growth of 3.7% a year, the highest in the world, the population doubling every 19 years |
| Area | 1,267,000 km² (489,191 sq mi) — land 1,266,700 km², water 300 km²; the largest of West Africa, the twenty-second in the world; landlocked |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | Three horizontal bands of orange, white and green with an orange disc at the center of the white — the orange for the Sahara of the north, the white for purity and the river, the green for the fertile Sahel of the south and the hope, the disc the sun and the sacrifices of the people; adopted 23 November 1959 a year before independence, in the near-square shape of 6:7 that the law of the day set and the flags in the shops ignore; the colors the same as India's in the same order by a coincidence of two continents.Flag of Niger |
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| Coat of arms | A green shield bearing the sun above a spear and two crossed Tuareg swords, three ears of millet and the head of a zebu, the mining, the desert, the farming and the herding of the country, on a trophy of four national flags; adopted 1 December 1962 |
| National anthem | "L'Honneur de la Patrie" ("The Honor of the Fatherland") — adopted 22 June 2023, a month before the coup, in place of "La Nigérienne" of 1961, the anthem of the French composer Maurice Thiriet whose words the parliament found too colonial; the new song of "the honor of the fatherland" by a committee of Nigeriens |
| National motto | "Fraternité, Travail, Progrès" |
| National colors | Orange, white and green |
| National animal | The West African giraffe of the Kouré plateau east of the capital, the last herd of its subspecies in the wild, 50 in 1996 and about 600 now, the country's conservation pride; the zebu of the arms; the addax and the dama gazelle of the Ténéré; the camel of the caravans; widely cited |
| National tree | The Tree of Ténéré, the acacia that stood alone 400 km from any other tree in the Sahara until a Libyan truck driver hit it in 1973, its trunk in the Niamey museum and a metal sculpture in its place; the neem of the streets; the date palms of the oases; widely cited |
| National dish | Millet — the tuwo and the fura of the Hausa, the porridge with the baobab-leaf sauce, the dambou couscous of the Zarma; the kilishi, the dried spiced beef of the markets; the brochettes of the streets; the Galmi onion of the sauces; the dates of Bilma; the tea of the three glasses of the Tuareg; the river's capitaine fish of Niamey; widely cited |
| National sport | Traditional wrestling — the "lutte traditionnelle," the national sport of the sabre, the champion of the eight regions crowned at the national championship of each year with the Sabre national; football, the Mena of the Cup of Nations of 2013; the camel and horse races of the festivals, the Cure Salée of the Wodaabe and the Tuareg at Ingall; the boxing of Issaka Daboré, the Olympic bronze of 1972, the only medal; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag by the law of 1959; the arms by the law of 1962; the anthem by the law of 2023; the animals, tree, dishes and sports widely cited |
Geography
| Location | West Africa in the Sahara and the Sahel, landlocked — Algeria and Libya to the north, Chad to the east, Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west; the Niger crossing the southwest corner; Lake Chad at the southeast corner; the Atlantic 650 km away at Cotonou |
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| Land borders | 5,834 km (3,625 mi) with seven neighbors — Nigeria 1,608, Chad 1,196, Algeria 951, Mali 838, Burkina Faso 622, Libya 342, Benin 277; the "three borders" of Tillabéri with Mali and Burkina Faso the jihadists' country; the Nigerian border of the trade and the Boko Haram of Diffa; the Benin border closed by Niamey since 2023 over the coup and the pipeline and the outreach of 2026; the Assamaka crossing of the Algerian expulsions; the Libyan desert of the smugglers and the gold diggers of Djado |
| Coastline | None — landlocked; the ports of Cotonou, Lomé and Lagos the outlets, Lomé the alliance's port since Benin's was shut |
| Highest point | Idoukal-n-Taghès, 2,022 m (6,634 ft), in the Bagzane massif of the Aïr |
| Lowest point | The Niger River at the border, 200 m (656 ft) |
| Mean elevation | 474 m (1,555 ft) |
| Rivers | The Niger, 550 km through the southwest from the Malian border past Niamey to the "W" bend and Benin, the country's only permanent river, low in the dry season and in flood in September, the floods of 2024 that drowned the capital's quarters; the Komadougou Yobé of the southeast, the Nigerian border to Lake Chad; the seasonal dallols, the Dallol Bosso and Maouri, the Mekrou and Tapoa of the W park; the koris of the Aïr that run for hours; the ancient rivers under the Ténéré |
| Lakes | Lake Chad — the Nigerien corner of the lake that was 25,000 km² in the 1960s and is a twentieth of that, the Diffa fishermen and the Boko Haram islands; the Madarounfa lake of Maradi, sacred; the ponds of the Aïr, the Tabelot; the guelta of Timia; the seasonal lakes of the Manga |
| Terrain | The Sahara over four-fifths — the Ténéré, the "desert of deserts," 400,000 km² of sand and gravel between the Aïr and the Tibesti, the erg of Bilma and its salt oases, the Djado plateau of the ruined towns and the gold rush of 2014, the Kaouar oases of the caravans; the Aïr, the volcanic massif of 84,000 km² of the Tuareg with the Bagzane and Mount Tamgak, its valleys and rock art; the Talak plain and the Azawagh; the Sahel of the south, the Hausa land of millet and cattle, the Ader hills of Tahoua, the Manga of the east; the Niger valley of the southwest with the W bend; the plateaus at 300 to 500 m |
| Climate | Desert over most — the north with under 100 mm of rain and the summer at 45°C, the harmattan of the winter with its dust; the Sahel of the south with 300 to 600 mm from June to September, Niamey at 500 and 29°C in the year, the hottest large city of the world by the mean; the rains that fail one year in three; the Sahel drying and the rains of the 2020s heavier |
| Natural hazards | Drought and famine — the Sahel droughts of 1968–74 and 1984, the famines of 2005 and 2010, the food insecurity of 3 million each lean season, the locusts; the floods of the summer rains, the floods of August and September 2024 that killed 339, displaced a million and made the government push the school year back, Niamey's bridges and quarters under the river; the heat; the Sahara of the migrants and the pilgrims, the truck from Mali found at Assamaka on 4 June 2026 with 49 dead of thirst and two survivors; the war of the "three borders" and the attacks on the capital's airport of 2026 |
| Natural resources | Uranium — the mines of Arlit and Akokan in the Aïr, Somaïr since 1971 and Cominak of 1978 closed in 2021, the seventh producer of the world and the second of Africa, the Imouraren deposit of 200,000 tons the largest of Africa, France's Orano the operator until the nationalization of 2025 and Russia's Rosatom the suitor since; oil of the Agadem basin of Diffa, the Chinese fields since 2011 and the pipeline to Benin since 2024; gold of the Samira hills and the Djado desert diggings; coal of Anou Araren for the mines' power; tin, phosphate, gypsum, salt of the Bilma and Fachi pans of the caravans; the millet and the cattle; the sun |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 35%, the pasture of the Sahel most of it and the arable a tenth of the country; forest about 1%, the tiger bush of the plateaus; the desert the rest |
| National parks | W National Park of 1954 on the Niger's bend, the W-Arly-Pendjari complex with Benin and Burkina Faso of the elephants, lions and the last West African savanna, the jihadists in its Beninese and Burkinabé parts; the Aïr and Ténéré reserves of 1988, 77,000 km², the largest protected area of Africa when made and on the World Heritage danger list since the rebellion of 1992; Termit and Tin Toumma of 2012, 97,000 km², the largest reserve of Africa now, of the addax and the dama gazelle; the Kouré giraffe zone of the last West African giraffes; the Gadabedji reserve of the Sahel; Lake Chad's Nigerien reserve |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 3 — the Aïr and Ténéré Natural Reserves (1991), the mountains and the sand sea of the addax and the Barbary sheep, in danger since 1992; W National Park (1996), extended in 2017 to the three-country complex; the Historic Centre of Agadez (2013), the mud-brick town of the sultans with the minaret of 27 m of 1515, the tallest of its kind; the practices and knowledge of the imzad, the Tuareg fiddle (2013, with Algeria and Mali), on the intangible list; the Cure Salée and the Gerewol of the Wodaabe on the tentative |
| Administrative divisions | 8 regions — Agadez, Diffa, Dosso, Maradi, Tahoua, Tillabéri, Zinder and the capital district of Niamey — under governors named by the junta; 63 departments under prefects; 266 communes whose elected councils of 2020 were dissolved by the coup and replaced by appointed administrators; the sultans of Agadez, Zinder and the Tuareg and Hausa chiefs of the traditional authority |
People
| Population | 17,138,707 (census of 2012); about 28 million (2026 est.) |
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| Population density | About 21 per km² (55 per sq mi) on the whole and about 100 on the Sahel strip where nine in ten live |
| Population growth | 3.7% a year — the highest of any country in the world, a million more people every year, the doubling in 19 years, 70 million by 2050 by the projections on the same land |
| Median age | About 15 years — the youngest population in the world |
| Life expectancy | About 62 years |
| Fertility rate | About 6.6 births per woman — the highest in the world, seven in the countryside; the child marriage of three girls in four before 18, the highest rate anywhere |
| Urban population | About 17% — the most rural of the large countries, Niamey the one city of size |
| Adult literacy | About 37% — among the lowest in the world, the women at 27%; the Quranic schools of the villages |
| Ethnic groups | Hausa about 53%, the farmers and traders of the south from Maradi to Zinder, the people of the Sokoto and Damagaram states; Zarma and Songhai about 21%, the people of the river and the capital, the country's political class since Diori; Tuareg about 11%, the Kel Aïr and Kel Gress of the desert and its edge, the rebels of 1990 and 2007 and the "blue men" of the caravans; Fulani about 6.5%, the Wodaabe herders of the Gerewol and the settled Fulani; Kanuri about 6%, the people of the Bornu empire around Diffa and Lake Chad; Gourmantché, Arab, Toubou of the northeast, the Buduma of the lake (the estimates of the Factbook); the whole a Sahelian crossroads |
| Languages | Hausa by half the people as the mother tongue and by most as the trade language, the national language since 2025; Zarma-Songhai by a fifth; Tamasheq, Fulfulde, Kanuri, Arabic, Gourmanchéma, Toubou, Buduma and Tasawaq the ten national languages of the law of 2001; French by a tenth, the language of the state, the schools and the courts still; English the working language the charter added; the Ajami of the Hausa scholars |
| Religion | Muslim about 99% — Sunni of the Maliki school, the Tijaniyya and Qadiriyya brotherhoods, the Sultan of Agadez and the marabouts, the Izala reformers of the Nigerian border since the 1990s, the mosques of the Libyan and Saudi money; the jihadists of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda a war on the state and the villages, not a faith of the people; Christian under 1%, the Catholics of Niamey and the evangelical churches burned in the Charlie Hebdo riots of January 2015; the traditional faith of the Bori spirits and the Wodaabe beneath; the penal code of 11 June 2026 that criminalized homosexuality with sentences to ten years |
| Human Development Index | 0.419 (2023 data, 2025 report) — low; 188th of 193, at the bottom of the table with Chad, South Sudan, Somalia and the Central African Republic |
| The children | Half the country under 15 — 14 million children, the primary schools of 3 million and the girls who leave them at 12, the marriage at 15, the mothers of 16; the stunting of half the children under five, the malnutrition of the lean season that fills the Maradi wards, the malaria; the demographic dividend the economists promise and the "demographic bomb" the others fear on a Sahel of 500 mm of rain; the family planning of 12% of the women; the Nigerien mother's 6.6 the highest fertility on earth |
| Sport | Traditional wrestling — the Sabre national of the champions, the arenas of every town; football, the Mena, qualified for the Cup of Nations of 2012 and 2013, Zinder's and Niamey's clubs; the camel races of the Cure Salée; Issaka Daboré's bronze of Munich 1972 and no medal since; the athletics of the heat |
| Diaspora | About 400,000 abroad — Nigeria, Benin, Ivory Coast and Libya of the seasonal migration of the men, the "exode" of the dry season since the colony; France, the small elite; the Tuareg of the Libyan wars; the migrants of half of Africa who pass through Agadez to the Libyan coast, 100,000 a year at the peak of 2016, the smuggling law of 2015 repealed by the junta in November 2023 and the trade reopened; the expulsions from Algeria at Assamaka of 30,000 a year, the walk of 15 km in the sand |
Government
| Form of government | Military rule — the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, the CNSP, of the coup of 26 July 2023, its chairman the president of the transition under the charter of 2025 with the legislative and the executive powers, the government of the prime minister he names, the Consultative Council for the Refoundation of 90 in place of the dissolved parliament; the Constitution of 2010 abolished, the parties dissolved, the mayors replaced; the "sovereignty" of the "Refoundation"; a "not free" state by Freedom House, a member of the Alliance of Sahel States |
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| President | General Abdourahamane Tiani, the head of state since 28 July 2023 and the president of the transition since 26 March 2025 — born in 1960 or 1964, by the accounts, in the Tillabéri region of a Hausa family, the officer of the Senegalese and the Moroccan academies and the peacekeeping of Ivory Coast, the commander of the Presidential Guard for twelve years from 2011 under two presidents, who turned the guard on the third and shut Mohamed Bazoum in his palace on 26 July 2023, "the deteriorating security situation" his stated reason, the rumor of his dismissal his critics'; the general of the army by his own promotion of 26 March 2025, sworn that day for five years, "the transition will be flexible"; the man of the uranium, the alliance, the Russians and the "foreign plots," who accused France, Benin and Ivory Coast of the attack on the airport of January 2026 and thanked the "Russian partners" for repelling it; the survivor of the mutiny of 28–29 August 2026; the "Tchiani" of the French spelling |
| Prime Minister | Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, since 9 August 2023 — the economist of the Sorbonne and the African Development Bank, the finance minister of Tandja's governments of 2002–10, the technocrat the junta named to face the world, the finance minister of his own government, the negotiator of the oil advance from China and the debt; the reshuffle of the transition's ministers under the charter; General Salifou Modi, the former chief of staff, the defense minister and the council's number two, the voice of the television on the night of 29 August 2026 that "the situation is under control"; General Mohamed Toumba at the interior |
| The coup of 2023 and Bazoum | The morning of 26 July 2023 — the Presidential Guard sealed the palace with President Mohamed Bazoum inside, the army rallied to the guard by evening, the council declared on television and Tiani its chairman on 28 July; Bazoum, elected in the runoff of 21 February 2021 with 55.7% and sworn on 2 April 2021 in the first peaceful transfer of the country's history, the Arab of the Diffa Oulad Slimane who refused to resign, held with his wife in the palace since, his son freed in January 2024, his immunity lifted by the State Security Court on 14 June 2024 for "high treason" and no trial held, "a hostage," his lawyers and the UN say; the demonstrations of the young for the coup and against France, the French embassy stormed on 30 July, the ultimatum of ECOWAS of 6 August and its threat of force that came to nothing, the sanctions and the border closures of Nigeria and Benin, lifted 24 February 2024; the sixth coup since 1960, after 1974, 1996, 1999, 2010 and the attempts |
| The mutiny of 2026 | The night of 28–29 August 2026 — soldiers from the garrisons of Ouallam, Téra and Dosso, the "three borders" front, calling themselves the Armed Forces for the Restoration of the Fatherland, attacked the airport's Base 101, the palace and the television, seized the base with its Turkish drones and the Russian Africa Corps men inside it, held the Russians for hours and put out a statement that Tiani "is no longer head of state"; the Presidential Guard and the Africa Corps with air and ground fire retook the base by the evening, "dozens of soldiers killed," the mutineers "neutralized" or fled, General Modi on the television, the alliance's "betrayal by a group of soldiers" and Algeria's four Su-30 jets and a tanker landed at Niamey on 30 August as "strategic support"; the young officers of the frontline units against the guard's better arms and pay, the analysts read it, "three years ago it was getting better, but look at things now," Chatham House's Melly put their case; "I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the Russians saved the day," Guichaoua told RFI; the "terrorists" of the first communiqués and the "young officers" of the second; the arrests and the purge since |
| The Alliance of Sahel States | The AES — the Alliance des États du Sahel of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, the three juntas' charter of 16 September 2023 for mutual defense and the confederation declared at Niamey on 6 July 2024, its joint force of 5,000 based at the Niamey airport, its passport, its bank and its television, its withdrawal from ECOWAS announced 28 January 2024 and effective 29 January 2025; the fuel convoys to a Mali blockaded by the jihadists, the 33 truckers who refused and lost their licenses on 12 January 2026; the Russians of the three, the Turkish drones, the Chinese and the Iranians; the "sovereignty" against France and the West, the flags burned; the CFA franc kept for now |
| The war | The jihadists of the Sahel since 2015 — the Islamic State's Sahel Province on the Malian border of Tillabéri and Tahoua, the killers of the villagers of Gorouol on 18 January 2026 with 31 dead and of Banibangou's 34 soldiers of June 2025, the attackers of the Niamey airport on 29 January 2026 with 20 of theirs dead; al-Qaeda's JNIM of the Burkinabé border, the ambush of the engineers' camp at Garbougna on 14 May 2026 with 67 dead and the attack on the airport of 18 June 2026 with 11 soldiers, two civilians and 22 attackers dead; Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa of Diffa and the lake since 2015; the Tongo Tongo ambush of 4 October 2017 with four American and five Nigerien soldiers dead, Inates of 10 December 2019 with 71, Chinagodrar of 9 January 2020 with 89; the army of 30,000, the Africa Corps of a few hundred, the drones; the villages emptied, 500,000 displaced; the "terrorists backed by foreign powers" of the junta's account and the "insurgency the juntas cannot beat" of the analysts' |
| Parliament | None — the National Assembly of 171 elected 27 December 2020 dissolved by the coup; the Consultative Council for the Refoundation of 90 members named under the charter of 2025, the "Assises" of the national conference of 15–20 February 2025 that wrote it; the parliament of the Alliance of Sahel States of the three countries' delegates |
| The next election | Due in 2030 by the five-year transition of the charter of 26 March 2025, "flexible" by its own text; the parties dissolved; the last election of 27 December 2020 and 21 February 2021 |
| The uranium standoff | The nationalization of Somaïr, the Arlit mine of 1971 in which France's Orano held 63% and the state 37%, ordered 19 June 2025 for the company's "disproportionate share," after the junta revoked Orano's permit for the Imouraren deposit on 20 June 2024 and the company lost control of the mine in December 2024; Orano's arbitration and its suits in every court against "anyone who tries to get their hands" on the stock; the 1,000 metric tons of yellowcake, worth about US$200 million, trucked from Arlit in November 2025 and stuck at the Niamey airport since, the buyer unknown, Romania's Nuclearelectrica bidding for a third of it by the documents of 2026, the airport attacked twice and mutinied over with the uranium inside its perimeter; Tiani's offer of January 2026 to "send" France its 100 tons of the coup's day, "everything that has been produced since then is Nigerien and will remain Nigerien"; the Rosatom memorandum of December 2025 with Uranium One for new mines, the Russian security for the Russian mining; the mine at reduced capacity, the seventh producer's exports at a trickle; the gold concessions of Comini, Afrior and Ecomine canceled 5 March 2026 and Savannah Energy's license refused |
| Legal system | Civil law of the French codes with the customary and Islamic law of the villages — the State Security Court of the junta, the Court of Cassation; the new penal code of 11 June 2026 with the ban on homosexuality at five to ten years; the death penalty on the books, unused since 1976; the withdrawal from the International Criminal Court filed 22 June 2026 with Mali and Burkina Faso, "selective justice," the junta's charge, the third to leave; the nine French media outlets suspended 8 May 2026 for "threatening public order," the journalists jailed; the activist Mariama Djibrine, "Mayra," stripped of her nationality in exile; the Bazoum case without a court |
| Local government | 8 regions with governors named by the junta, the soldiers most of them; 266 communes with the elected councils of 2020 dissolved and the "special delegations" of appointed administrators; the sultans and chiefs of the cantons, the Sultan of Agadez and the Sultan of Damagaram at Zinder, the Tuareg amenokals, the Hausa sarakuna, the state's reach in the villages |
| Defense | The Armed Forces of Niger of about 30,000 — the army of the "three borders," the air force of the Turkish Bayraktar drones and the Base 101 of the capital, the Presidential Guard of the coup and the mutiny's defeat, the National Guard and the gendarmerie; the French forces of 1,500 gone by 22 December 2023, the American 1,000 and their US$110 million drone base of Agadez gone by 15 September 2024, the Germans, the Italians of 300 at the airport still; Russia's Africa Corps since April 2024, the air defense of the capital and "the day" it saved; the Turkish trainers; the Algerian jets of August 2026; the Alliance's joint force; no conscription |
| Foreign policy | The "sovereignty" of the junta — France the enemy, the ambassador expelled in 2023, the troops gone, the uranium taken, the media banned, the accusation of every attack; the United States out of its bases and its aid, the "transactional" talks of 2025–26; Russia the partner of the corps, the arms and the uranium; Turkey of the drones, China of the oil, Iran of the visits, Algeria of the outreach of 2026 and the jets, Benin of the reopened talks after the two years of the closed border and the pipeline war, Nigeria of the accusations of sabotage of December 2024 that Abuja denied; ECOWAS left, the African Union's suspension since 2023; the Alliance of the Sahel |
| United Nations | Member since 20 September 1960; the Security Council seats of 1980–81 and 2020–21, the last under Bazoum; the humanitarian appeal of 4 million in need; the peacekeepers of Mali withdrawn; the UN experts refused |
| Other memberships | The Alliance of Sahel States (2023); the West African Economic and Monetary Union of the CFA franc; the Lake Chad Basin Commission; the Niger Basin Authority; the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; the Non-Aligned Movement; the WTO (1996); the Francophonie, suspended; ECOWAS left 29 January 2025; the African Union suspended since August 2023; the ICC in withdrawal |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$20 billion (2025, IMF) |
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| GDP per capita | About US$700 (2025) — among the ten lowest in the world |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$1,900 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 8.8% in 2024 on the first oil exports of the pipeline, about 6% in 2025 and about 5% expected in 2026 with the pipeline at half its planned flow and the uranium at a trickle; inflation about 3%; the CFA franc's peg; the ECOWAS sanctions of 2023–24 that shut the borders and the banks and cut the growth of 2023 to 2%; the aid of the West suspended since the coup, the World Bank's return in part |
| Economy by sector | Agriculture and herding about 40% and four workers in five, the subsistence of millet, sorghum and cattle; industry about 20%, the oil, the uranium and the gold; services about 40%; the informal economy most of it |
| Currency | West African CFA franc (XOF) |
| Oil | The Agadem basin of Diffa found by the Chinese CNPC in 2008 and producing since 2011 for the Zinder refinery of 20,000 barrels a day, the SORAZ, the country's fuel; the Niger–Benin pipeline of 1,950 km from Agadem to the port of Sèmè-Kpodji finished in 2024, 90,000 barrels a day at full flow and the first cargo of 19 May 2024, the export that doubled the growth — then the quarrel with Benin over the coup, the border closed by Niamey, the pipeline shut and reopened, the attacks of the jihadists on it in Dosso in June 2024, the accusations of sabotage; the flow at half the target in 2026; the US$400 million advance from CNPC of 2024 against future oil; the domestic pipeline from Agadem to Zinder taken into state ownership in May 2026 under the new state company SNPI and the agreement with CNPC of the same month that cut the transport tariff to Benin from US$27 to US$15 a barrel and gave the state 45% of WAPCO, the pipeline's operator; the oil now the first export |
| Uranium | The seventh producer of the world and the second of Africa — about 2,000 tons a year at the peak from Arlit and Akokan, a quarter of France's fuel in the 2000s and 15% of the European Union's, the mines of the Aïr since 1971 and the town of Arlit built for them; Cominak closed 2021, Somaïr nationalized 2025 and running at reduced capacity, Imouraren's 200,000 tons undeveloped since Areva's halt of 2015 and the permit revoked in 2024; the exports near nothing in 2025–26, the stock at the airport, the Russian and Turkish suitors, the Chinese of Azelik; the uranium a tenth of the exports of the 2010s and the country's name abroad |
| Farming and the herds | Millet, the country's bread, on 7 million hectares, and sorghum, cowpeas — the largest exporter of cowpeas in Africa — and the onions of Galmi, the violet onion of Tahoua that feeds the markets of West Africa, the largest onion exporter of the continent; the cattle, goats, sheep and camels of 60 million head, the second export to Nigeria on the hoof; the peanuts of Maradi of the colony gone; the rice of the river's Kandadji dam, the 130 MW dam of 2008 still building; the harvest that fails one year in three and the aid convoys |
| Gold and the rest | The Samira gold mine of the west since 2004 and the artisanal gold of the Djado plateau in the Libyan desert since the rush of 2014, the Tchibarakaten diggings of the Tuareg, the gold smuggled to Dubai; the Chinese companies of the concessions and the three canceled on 5 March 2026; the coal of Anou Araren; the cement; the trade of the Nigerian border; the remittances of the migrants; the aid that was a third of the budget |
| Energy | Electricity for a fifth of the people, from Nigeria's Kainji dam by the line that Abuja cut for the sanctions of 2023 and restored in 2024, the Gorou Banda plant of Niamey, the coal of Anou Araren for Arlit, the solar of the 2020s; the Kandadji dam of the Niger for 2027 by the latest date; the fuel of the Zinder refinery; the firewood of the villages, the desert's advance |
| Public finances | Public debt about 50% of GDP, the arrears of the sanctions' year and the regional market's loans at high rates, the oil advance; the budget of about US$3 billion of 2026, the security first; the aid of the European Union, the United States and the World Bank suspended in 2023, some of it back; the IMF program kept; the 41% in poverty by the count of 2024; the "sovereignty" budget of the junta |
| Income classification | Low income (World Bank); a least developed country |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Diori Hamani International Airport at Niamey, about 360,000 passengers, the civilian terminal beside the air force's Base 101, the drone base and the alliance's command, the airport of the attacks of 29 January and 18 June 2026, the mutiny of 29 August and the thousand tons of uranium in its perimeter; Mano Dayak of Agadez, the American drone base of 2019 handed over in 2024; Zinder, Maradi, Tahoua of the drone base attacked 8 March 2026, Diffa |
|---|---|
| Airlines | Niger Airlines of 2013, the private domestic carrier; no national airline since Air Niger's end in 1993; Turkish, Ethiopian, Royal Air Maroc, Air Algérie, Asky and the Egyptian carriers the links, Air France banned since 2023; the flights of the Russian and Turkish military |
| Main port | None — landlocked; Cotonou in Benin, 1,000 km from Niamey, the historic outlet shut by the coup's quarrel, Lomé in Togo the alliance's port since, Lagos; the oil terminal of Sèmè-Kpodji of the pipeline; the river barges of the Niger to Gaya in the high water |
| Railways | The Niamey–Dosso line of 140 km, laid by the Bolloré group in 2014–16 as the first stretch of a railway to Cotonou and never operated, the "railway to nowhere" of the rusting rails, the Benin end never built after the court cases; the tracks the only ones in a country of 1.27 million km² |
| Roads | About 19,000 km (11,800 mi), about 4,000 paved — the Route Nationale 1 from Niamey through Dosso, Maradi and Zinder to Diffa, 1,300 km, the spine of the south; the Trans-Saharan Highway from Algeria through Assamaka and Arlit to Agadez and the south, its Nigerien gaps closed in the 2020s; the road to Ouagadougou and Bamako of the alliance's convoys and the jihadists' ambushes; the Kennedy Bridge of 1970 over the Niger at Niamey and the Chinese bridges of 2011 and 2020; the trucks of the Sahara to Libya; the driving on the right; the donkeys and the camels of the rest |
| The caravans | The azalai, the salt caravans of the Tuareg camels from Agadez to the oases of Bilma and Fachi, 600 km across the Ténéré for the salt and the dates, a few hundred camels a year where thousands went; the Cure Salée of the herders at Ingall in September; the migrants' pickups of Agadez to Libya, 30 to a truck |
History in dates
| c. 8000 BC | The green Sahara — the Gobero burials, the oldest cemetery of the desert |
|---|---|
| c. 6000 BC | The Dabous giraffes carved in the Aïr |
| c. 500 BC | The iron of the Aïr |
| c. 1000 | Kanem-Bornu on Lake Chad; the Hausa states |
| 1449 | The Sultanate of Agadez |
| 1515 | The mosque of Agadez; Songhai rules the west |
| 1591 | The Moroccans destroy Songhai |
| 1730s | Damagaram — the Sultanate of Zinder |
| 1804 | The Sokoto jihad of Usman dan Fodio |
| 1899 | The Voulet–Chanoine mission — the French massacres |
| 1900 | The Military Territory, 23 July |
| 1916 | The Kaocen revolt of the Tuareg, to 1917 |
| 1922 | The Colony of Niger, 13 October |
| 1926 | Niamey the capital |
| 1958 | The referendum, 28 September; the Republic, 18 December |
| 1960 | Independence, 3 August — Hamani Diori |
| 1968 | The Sahel drought, to 1974 |
| 1971 | The uranium of Arlit |
| 1974 | Kountché's coup, 15 April |
| 1990 | The Tuareg rebellion, to 1995; Tchin-Tabaraden |
| 1993 | The first free election, 27 March — Ousmane |
| 1996 | Maïnassara's coup, 27 January |
| 1999 | Maïnassara killed, 9 April; Tandja elected, 24 November |
| 2005 | The famine |
| 2007 | The second Tuareg rebellion, to 2009 |
| 2010 | The coup against Tandja, 18 February; the Constitution, 25 November |
| 2011 | Issoufou president, 7 April; the first oil, November |
| 2013 | The Arlit and Agadez bombings, 23 May |
| 2015 | Boko Haram at Diffa, February; the Charlie Hebdo riots, January |
| 2017 | Tongo Tongo, 4 October |
| 2019 | Inates, 10 December — 71 soldiers |
| 2021 | Bazoum sworn, 2 April — the first peaceful transfer |
| 2023 | The new anthem, 22 June; the coup, 26 July; Tiani, 28 July; the alliance, 16 September; the French leave, 22 December |
| 2024 | The sanctions lifted, 24 February; the first oil export, 19 May; Imouraren revoked, 20 June; the confederation, 6 July; the Americans leave, 15 September; the floods, August–September — 339 dead |
| 2025 | ECOWAS left, 29 January; the conference, February; the charter and the oath, 26 March; Somaïr nationalized, 19 June; the uranium to the airport, November; the Rosatom memorandum, December |
| 2026 | Gorouol, 18 January; the airport attacked, 29 January; the concessions canceled, 5 March; Tahoua, 8 March; the French media banned, 8 May; the pipeline nationalized, May; Garbougna, 14 May; Assamaka, 4 June; the penal code, 11 June; the airport again, 18 June; the ICC notice, 22 June; the mutiny, 28–29 August; the Algerian jets, 30 August |
Records & firsts
| The youngest population in the world | A median age of 15 |
|---|---|
| The highest fertility in the world | About 6.6 births per woman |
| The fastest-growing population | 3.7% a year |
| Among the lowest on the Human Development Index | 188th of 193 |
| The largest country of West Africa | 1,267,000 km² |
| The oldest cemetery of the Sahara | Gobero, 8000 BC |
| The largest rock engraving | The Dabous giraffes |
| The loneliest tree | The Tree of Ténéré, until 1973 |
| The tallest mud minaret | Agadez, 27 m |
| The largest reserve of Africa | Termit and Tin Toumma |
| The last West African giraffes | Kouré |
| A railway never used | Niamey–Dosso, 140 km |
| A thousand tons of uranium at an airport | Since November 2025 |
| Six coups and the mutiny | 1974 to 2026 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Niger?
The Republic of Niger — République du Niger in French, the old official language, Jamhuriyar Nijar in Hausa, which the transition charter of 2025 made the national language — independent of France on 3 August 1960 under Hamani Diori, a republic since 18 December 1958 within the French Community, and since the coup of 26 July 2023 a state ruled by the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland of General Tiani. The name is the river's, the Niger that crosses the southwest for 550 km, and the river's name is of uncertain birth — from the Tuareg gher n gheren, "river of rivers," by the usual reading, and not from the Latin for black, the coincidence that named its southern neighbor Nigeria too; the French pronounce it nee-ZHAIR.
What is the capital of Niger?
Niamey — the fishing villages on the left bank of the Niger that the French made the capital of the colony in 1926, in place of Zinder, for the river and the road to the coast, a city of about 1.5 million on the two banks joined by the Kennedy Bridge of 1970 and the Chinese bridges since, the Grand Market, the Grand Mosque of the Libyan money and the palace where the deposed president has been held since July 2023; the Diori Hamani airport on its edge the target of the attacks of January and June 2026 and the base of the mutiny of August. Zinder, the Hausa city of the sultan of Damagaram, is the second; Maradi the trading city of the Nigerian border, Agadez the Tuareg city of the desert caravans and the mud minaret, Tahoua, Dosso and Diffa the others.
How big is Niger, and how many people live there?
About 1,267,000 km² (489,191 sq mi) — nearly twice the size of Texas, the largest country of West Africa and the twenty-second in the world, four-fifths of it the Sahara of the Ténéré sands and the Aïr mountains and the fifth in the south the Sahel where the people live, landlocked between Algeria and Libya to the north, Chad to the east, Nigeria and Benin to the south, and Burkina Faso and Mali to the west. The census of 2012 counted 17,138,707 people; the estimate for 2026 is about 28 million, growing at 3.7 percent a year, the fastest of any country on earth, on a fertility of about 6.6 children per woman, the world's highest, with a median age of 15, the world's youngest — half the people children — the numbers that shape everything else.
What are the highest and lowest points of Niger?
Idoukal-n-Taghès, 2,022 m (6,634 ft), in the Bagzane massif of the Aïr mountains north of Agadez, the volcanic highland of the Tuareg in the middle of the Sahara; and the Niger River where it leaves for Benin and Nigeria at about 200 m (656 ft), so that the whole country stands above 200 m, most of it a plateau of 300 to 500. The Niger, 4,180 km long in all, is the country's only permanent river; the Komadougou Yobé of the southeast drains to the shrunken corner of Lake Chad; the Ténéré, a desert within the desert of 400,000 km², holds the sand sea of the Bilma erg and the tree that stood alone in it until a truck knocked it down in 1973.
What currency does Niger use?
The West African CFA franc (ISO code XOF, F CFA), of 100 centimes, the money of the eight countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union issued by their central bank at Dakar and pegged to the euro at 655.957 francs since 1999, the French Treasury's guarantee behind it — the currency the three states of the Alliance of the Sahel have talked of leaving as a colonial relic and have not left, about 600 to the U.S. dollar. Clocks keep West Africa Time, UTC+1, all year; Niger drives on the right.
Who governs Niger?
General Abdourahamane Tiani, the commander of the Presidential Guard who seized power on 26 July 2023 by detaining the elected president Mohamed Bazoum in his palace, where he remains, the head of the junta's National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland and, since 26 March 2025, the president of a "transition" of five years under a charter that dissolved the 172 political parties and set no fixed date for an election; Ali Lamine Zeine, the economist, is the prime minister. The regime broke with France, expelled the French and the American troops, joined Mali and Burkina Faso in the Alliance of Sahel States, left ECOWAS, brought in Russia's Africa Corps and nationalized the French uranium mine — and survived on 28–29 August 2026 a mutiny of young officers who seized the airport base and the television before the Presidential Guard and the Russians retook them, "the Russians saved the day," a Sahel analyst said. The jihadists of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda hold the countryside of the west; the elections the charter promises are due in 2030.
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