Over 80% of its land area lies in the Sahara Desert.
Niger pursues a moderate foreign policy and maintains friendly relations with the West and the Islamic world as well as non-aligned countries. Following his arrest the country fell into disarray until 1991, when Ali Saibou (Niger's third president) was forced by public pressure to allow multiparty elections, that ultimately resulted in a democratic government in 1993.Political infighting brought the government to a standstill and in 1996, led to a coup by Col. Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara.In February, 2010 a military junta was established, following a coup d'état which deposed Tandja. It restored the semi-presidential system of government of the 1999 constitution (Fifth Republic) in which the president of the republic, elected by As a reflection of Niger's increasing population, the The constitution also provides for the popular election of municipal and local officials, and the first-ever successful municipal elections took place on 24 July 2004. Humans have inhabited the territory of modern Niger for millennia; stone tools, some dating as far back as 280,000 BC, have been found in Towards the end of this period, up till the first centuries AD, societies continued to grow and become more complex, with regional differentiation in agricultural and funerary practices. Browse … Nigeria (1907) Outline map of Northern and Southern Nigeria, TSGS 2235.
Niger subvisions were renamed in 2002, in the implementation of a decentralisation project, first begun in 1998.
The country is led now by the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD).Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world with minimal government services and insufficient funds to develop its resource base. Niger covers a land area of almost 1,270,000 km (490,000 sq mi), making it the largest country in West Africa. In fact, they are neighbors and are named as such because their names are based on the river Niger which flows through both the countries before emptying into the Gulf of Guinea. Map of Niger and travel information about Niger brought to you by Lonely Planet. These subdivisions were administered by officials appointed by the national government. General Staff. However, in reality, they are two different countries located on the continent of Africa. This process, known as the 'The Military Territory of Niger was subsequently created within the The French generally adopted a form of indirect rule, allowing existing native structures to continue to exist within the colonial framework of governance providing that they acknowledged French supremacy.For its first 14 years as an independent state Niger was run by a single-party civilian regime under the presidency of Hamani Diori.Despite the restriction in freedom, the country enjoyed improved economic development as Kountché sought to create a 'development society', funded largely by the uranium mines in Saibou significantly curtailed the most repressive aspects of the Kountché era (such as the secret police and media censorship), and set about introducing a process of political reform under the overall direction of a single party (the President Saibou's efforts to control political reforms failed in the face of trade union and student demands to institute a The National Sovereign Conference of 1991 marked a turning point in the post-independence history of Niger and brought about multi-party democracy. Art and culture.