Niger
Not until 1993, 33 years after independence from France, did Niger hold its first free and open elections. A 1995 peace accord ended a five-year Tuareg insurgency in the north. Coups in 1996 and 1999 were followed by the creation of a National Reconciliation Council that effected a transition to civilian rule in December 1999.
A retired Lieutenant-Colonel, Mamadou Tandja, was elected president in 1999; he won a second and final term in December 2004. He participated in the coup which overthrew Diori Hamani, Niger's first elected president, in 1974, and subsequently served as interior minister. He stood in the presidential election of 1993, but was beaten by Mahamane Ousmane. In 1996 he again ran for president, but lost to incumbent leader Ibrahim Bare Mainassara. In April 1999, Mainassara's own Presidential Guard shot him dead, in circumstances that have yet to be fully explained.
Rated by the UN as one of the world's poorest nations, Niger is vulnerable to fluctuations in the price of its main export, uranium; its agriculture is threatened by droughts and the encroaching desert. The government is hoping that oil exploration will boost its economic fortunes. Only one-third of primary school-age children in Niger receive an education. The country's health system is similarly rudimentary. Anti-slavery groups assert that although the government banned the centuries-old practice of slavery in 2003, thousands of people still live in subjugation in Niger.
While there are currently no known specific threats to travelers or expatriate personnel in Niger, unrest among soldiers has been common in the state in the past few years, when the government has frequently been unable to pay civil servants and others on the state payroll. In addition, due to banditry, travel to the north and far eastern areas of the country should be avoided. Groups of foreign travelers have been robbed of vehicles, cash, and belongings and left stranded in the remote desert.
Travel in the northern and far eastern areas of Niger is dangerous and should only be undertaken by air or protected convoy. Despite the peace agreement between the government of Niger and the Tuareg rebel groups, there is a continuing threat of sporadic armed conflict and violent banditry.
In October 2004, the government appeared to be reluctantly recognizing the revival of the Tuareg rebellion in northern Niger, while dismissing its political aims. The Interior Minister confirmed in a radio broadcast that five people were killed when government forces clashed with bandits claiming to be Tuareg rebels in the Aïr mountains in the desert north. One soldier and four attackers were killed; four soldiers were wounded. One of those captured was an army deserter. This lent credence to reports over the summer that former Tuareg rebel fighters, integrated into the military under the 1995 peace deal, had deserted and were regrouping in the Aïr Mountains to resume hostilities. Authorities strongly denied the reports, and insisted that numerous attacks on vehicles on the trans-Saharan highway were just incidents of banditry. (Even after the Touareg rebellion formally ended in 1995, banditry remained a serious problem in northern Niger until 2000, forcing traffic on the trans-Sahara highway to travel in convoys with heavily-armed soldiers.)
Mohamed Ag Boula, the brother of Rhissa Ag Boula who used to lead the now-dissolved Aïr and Azaouak Liberation Front (FLAA) rebel group, claimed responsibility for this attack. Mohamed ag Boula said in an interview with Radio France International that he was personally responsible for the attack and that he was leading a 200-strong militia to defend the rights of the Tuareg, Toubou and Semori nomadic populations of northern Niger. He said, "We are defending our rights in Niger. The current government has not implemented the 1995 accords. Besides, we are demanding the liberation of all members of the ex-rebellion currently in detention."
The Interior Minister said that the assailants in this attack were the same group who had launched attacks in the preceding months on vehicles along the main trans-Sahara highway in northern Niger. The minister denigrated the group's "so-called political demands," calling them a mask for criminal activities.
In October 2005, ten years after the government and FLAA rebels had signed an accord to end the Tuareg rebellion, the government began meeting its commitment to launch an economic assistance program for more than 3,000 former insurgents in the northern Aïr and Azawak regions. This was the final phase of the peace agreement. It grants each of 3,160 ex-combatants about US$300 in the form of micro-loans for projects in animal husbandry, the craft industry and vegetable gardening. The launch was delayed due to lack of funds and lingering instability in northern Niger. Tuareg representatives welcomed the project. This move may prevent further attacks by former Tuareg rebels.
Due to banditry, travel is particularly dangerous above a line connecting (West to East) the communities of Tera, Tillaberi, Ouallam, Filingue, Tahoua, Keita, Bouza, Dakoro, Tanout, and Nguigmi.
In March 2004, the Nigérien government confirmed that its army had clashed with members of the largest Islamic radical group from Algeria, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), causing the militants to flee over the border into Chad. Niger's deserts are thinly patrolled at best. U.S. forces have been working to train regional forces in controlling the movement of such groups in the Sahara.
Demonstrations take place from time to time in Niamey, and can turn violent. Police response can be harsh, especially during student protests, usually sparked by university administrative issues. When students protest at the campus of the University of Niamey (located on the right bank of the Niger River), they commonly set up roadblocks of burning tires, boulders and tree-trunks. Such demonstration halt traffic on the Pont Kennedy, the only bridge in Niamey spanning the Niger River.
Issues such as press crackdowns can also spark protests, but these are more often peaceful than student protests.
