It is a unitary state bordered by Libya to the northeast, Chad to the east, Nigeria to the south, Benin and Burkina Faso to the southwest, Mali to the west, and Algeria to the northwest.

[23][24] The Neolithic era, beginning circa 10,000 BC, saw a number of changes such as the introduction of pottery (as evidenced at Tagalagal, Temet and Tin Ouffadene), the spread of cattle husbandry, and the burying of the dead in stone tumuli.

[41][42] From its heartland around the later Guinea-Mali border region, the empire expanded under successive kings and came to dominate the Trans-Saharan trade routes, reaching its greatest extent during the rule of Mansa Musa (r.

[41] A Muslim, Mansa Musa performed the hajj in 1324–25 and encouraged the spread of Islam in the empire, and it "appears that most ordinary citizens continued to maintain their traditional animist beliefs instead of or alongside the new religion".

[21][46][47] The empire was unable to withstand repeated attacks from the Saadi dynasty of Morocco and was decisively defeated at the Battle of Tondibi in 1591; it then collapsed into a number of smaller kingdoms.

[48] Attacks by the Bulala people in the 14th century forced Kanem to shift westwards of Lake Chad where it became known as the Bornu Empire ruled from its capital Ngazargamu on what is later the Niger-Nigeria border.

[44][21][54] An extension of the legend states that Bawo had a further seven sons with a concubine, who went on to found the so-called 'Banza (illegitimate) Bakwai': Zamfara, Kebbi, Nupe, Gwari, Yauri, Ilorin and Kwararafa.

The Caliphate managed to survive until, "fatally weakened" by the invasions of Chad-based warlord Rabih az-Zubayr, it finally fell to the British in 1903, with its lands later being partitioned between Britain and France.

[40] In the 19th century, some European explorers travelled in the area that would become known as Niger, such as Mungo Park (in 1805–1806), the Oudney-Denham-Clapperton expedition (1822–25), Heinrich Barth (1850–55 with James Richardson and Adolf Overweg), Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs (1865–1867), Gustav Nachtigal (1869–1874) and Parfait-Louis Monteil (1890–1892).

[40][21] On 8 May 1899, in retaliation for the resistance of queen Sarraounia, captain Voulet and his men murdered all the inhabitants of the village of Birni-N'Konni in what is regarded as "one of the worst massacres in French colonial history".

[40] The "brutal" methods of Voulet and Chanoine caused a "scandal" and Paris was forced to intervene; when Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-François Klobb caught up with the mission near Tessaoua to relieve them of command he was killed.

[62] On 11 July 1960, Niger decided to leave the French Community and acquired full independence at midnight, local time, on 3 August 1960;[63] Diori thus became the first president of the country.

Niger remained a one-party state throughout this period, with Diori surviving a planned coup in 1963 and an assassination attempt in 1965; most of this activity was masterminded by Djibo Bakary's MSA-Sawaba group which had launched an abortive rebellion in 1964.

[40][65] In the 1970s, a combination of economic difficulties, droughts and accusations of rampant corruption and mismanagement of food supplies resulted in a coup d'état that overthrew the Diori regime.

[40] Parastatal companies were created, infrastructure (building and new roads, schools, health centres) constructed, and there was corruption in government agencies, which Kountché did not hesitate to punish.

[40] Saibou 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 Mouvement National pour la Société du Développement, or MNSD).

[68] President Saibou's efforts to control political reforms failed in the face of trade union and student demands to institute a multi-party democratic system.

The conference was presided over by Prof. André Salifou and developed a plan for a transitional government; this was then installed in November 1991 to manage the affairs of state until the institutions of the Third Republic were put into place in April 1993.

[70] The governmental paralysis prompted the military to intervene; on 27 January 1996, Col. Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara led a coup that deposed President Ousmane and ended the Third Republic.

Mamadou brought about administrative and economic reforms that had been halted due to the military coups since the Third Republic, and helped peacefully resolve a decades-long boundary dispute with Benin.

By 2007, the relationship between President Tandja Mamadou and his prime minister had "deteriorated", leading to the replacement of the latter in June 2007 by Seyni Oumarou following a successful vote of no confidence at the Assembly.

[85] On 10 December 2019, a large group of fighters belonging to the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS) attacked a military post in Inates,[86] killing over seventy soldiers and kidnapping others.

[106] UN resident coordinator Louise Aubin was also expelled in October after the junta alleged "underhanded maneuvers" by U.N secretary-general António Guterres to prevent the country's participation in the UN General Assembly.

Environmental issues include destructive farming practices as a result of population pressure, illegal hunting, bush fires in some areas and human encroachment upon the flood plains of the Niger River for paddy cultivation.

The pre-2002 departments (renamed as regions) and capital district are: The economy of Niger centers on subsistence crops, livestock, and some of the world's largest uranium deposits.

[106] Niger has ten recognized national languages, namely Arabic, Buduma, Fulfulde, Gourmanchéma, Hausa, Kanuri, Zarma and Songhay, Tamasheq, Tassawaq and Tebu.

[146] Interfaith relations are deemed very good, and the forms of Islam traditionally practiced in most of the country are marked by tolerance of other faiths and lack of restrictions on personal freedom.

Roughly 92% of the population lives in rural areas in the Tillabéri region along the western frontier, and there is a chronic scarcity of clean water, particularly during the hot season, when temperatures regularly exceed 40 degrees Celsius.

What is now Niger was created from four distinct cultural areas in the pre-colonial era: the Zarma and Songhai dominated the Niger River valley in the southwest; the northern periphery of Hausaland, made mostly of those states which had resisted the Sokoto Caliphate, and ranged along the long southern border with Nigeria; the Lake Chad basin and Kaouar in the far east, populated by Kanuri farmers and Toubou pastoralists who had once been part of the Kanem–Bornu Empire; and the Tuareg nomads of the Aïr Mountains and the Sahara in the vast north.

Aside from Nigerien radio stations, the BBC's Hausa service is listened to on FM repeaters across wide parts of the country, particularly in the south, close to the border with Nigeria.