Niger
A Sahelian land of uranium and the southern Sahara
Niger is a landlocked country sprawling across the Sahel and the southern Sahara, taking its name from the great river that arcs through its southwestern corner. One of the hottest nations on Earth and consistently ranked among the world's poorest, it nonetheless sits atop significant uranium reserves that have made it a strategic supplier of nuclear fuel. Its roughly 27 million people, the great majority living in the thin band of arable land along the southern border, have one of the highest birth rates anywhere, and the country faces drought, food insecurity, and a spreading jihadist insurgency.
More than two-thirds of Niger is desert, dominated in the north by the Aïr Mountains, an isolated volcanic massif whose peak, Mont Idoukal-n-Taghès, is the highest point at about 2,022 meters, and by the empty Ténéré sand sea beyond. The Niger River waters the fertile southwest around the capital Niamey, while the Sahelian south, including the densely settled Hausa lands and the shores of shrinking Lake Chad in the far southeast, supports millet, sorghum, and livestock. Uranium from the Arlit mines, along with gold and emerging oil, provides the bulk of export earnings.
The lands of present-day Niger were crossed by trans-Saharan trade routes and ruled at various times by the Songhai Empire, the Hausa city-states, and the Tuareg confederations of the Aïr. France conquered the region by the early twentieth century, and independence came in 1960. Niger's post-colonial history has alternated between civilian and military rule, with recurring droughts, Tuareg rebellions, and, since the 2010s, attacks by Sahelian jihadist groups. A 2023 military coup ousted the elected president and pivoted the country away from France, reshaping security alliances across the region.