In 2006, approximately 150,000[1][2][3] accounting for less than 1.5% of the Niger's population, the Diffa Arabs are said to be the westernmost dispersion of Arabic-speaking Sudanese nomads, primarily drawn from the Mahamid subclan of the Rizeigat of Sudan and Chad.
[4] But following the 1974 Sahelian Drought a much larger population of Arab clans began to move into Niger, followed by others fleeing the civil war and the Chadian-Libyan conflict in the 1980s, settling near Diffa.
The first President of Niger who is an ethnic Diffa Arab is Mohamed Bazoum in Office since 2021.
[6] News reports quote Nigerien officials during the 2001 census reporting that Arab communities were in constant conflict with their neighbors over resources, were armed, and that "A relative unanimity prevails among the population who want them to leave the area".
Niger's government eventually suspended the controversial decision to deport Arabs.