Since 1975, Niger has celebrated Arbor Day as part of its Independence Day: 3 August.

President Compaoré has mediated a political crisis in Togo and helped to resolve the Tuareg conflict in Niger.

Chad has been an active champion of regional cooperation through the Central African Economic and Customs Union, the Lake Chad and Niger River Basin Commissions, and the Interstate Commission for the Fight Against the Drought in the Sahel.

Delimitation of international boundaries in the vicinity of Lake Chad, the lack of which led to border incidents in the past, has been completed and awaits ratification by Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.

Hausa is also spoken various parts of Cameroon and Chad, which combined the mixed dialects of Northern Nigeria and Niger Republic, French has made a great influence in the way Hausa is spoken by the native Hausa speakers.

The NTC has been in negotiations with Algeria and Niger, neighboring countries to which members of the government and defecting military commanders have fled, attempting to secure the arrest and extradition of Al-Saadi Gaddafi and others.

Libya also has sought to expand its influence in Africa through financial assistance, ranging from aid donations to impoverished neighbors such as Niger to oil subsidies to Zimbabwe.

Mali has no seaports because it is landlocked, but Koulikoro on the Niger River near Bamako, serves as a principal river port.

Mali has 1, 815 kilometers of inland waterways, principally the Niger River, some portions of which are navigable for medium and large shipping during the rainy season ( June / July – November / December ) in years of normal rainfall.

Considerable evidence indicates that about 60, 000 years ago, humans inhabited what has since become the desolate Sahara Desert of northern Niger.

Niger borders seven countries and has a total of 5 697 km of borders.

Niger also has short borders in its far southwest frontier ( Burkina Faso at 628 km and Benin at 266 km ) and to the northnortheast ( Libya at 354 km ).

Niger, is a landlocked Sub-Sahara African nation, and over the past two decades has consistently been ranked near or at the bottom of worldwide indexes of the Human development index, GDP, and percapita income.

An Indian proposal has surfaced to link the railways in Benin and Togo with landlocked Niger and Burkino Faso.

Kaura-Namoda via Sokoto to Birnin-Konni ( about 250 km altogether ) on the border with Niger, which has no railway.

Niger has maintained close ties with France, its former colonial power.

A conservative foreign policy has meant that under Niger's first president and — following military coup — the 1974 – 1991 military government, Niger maintained good relations with the United States, Israel, and NATO governments in general.

Niger has only 24 permanent embassies abroad, although more have permanent representation in Niamey, either through national embassies or other representatives.

Libya has in the past claimed a strip along their border of about 19, 400 km² in northern Niger.

An agreement has been completed and awaits ratification by Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.

Niger has an ongoing conflict with Benin over Lété Island, an island in the River Niger approx.

Niger has ongoing processes delimiting sections of their borders with Burkina Faso and Mali, disputes which date back to the colonial period.

The country has two major rail lines: one connects Lagos on the Bight of Benin and Nguru in the northern state of Yobe ; the other connects Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta and Maiduguri in the northeastern state of Borno.

Niger maintains a special relationship with France and enjoys close relations with its West African neighbours.

The first president of Niger, Hamani Diori, maintained close relations with the west and became internationally prominent in his diplomatic work, seeking to broker resolutions to conflicts in Africa and beyond.

Franco-Nigerien relations continue to be close, with France as Niger's top export partner ( in value ), and the French government being almost entirely dependent upon Niger for the Uranium which fuels its extensive Nuclear Power system, mined in the northern town of Arlit.

Nigeria maintains close relations with the Republic of Niger, in part because both nations share a large Hausa minority on each side of their 450-mile ( 1500 km ) border.

Despite the occasional recurrence of a border conflict over Lete Island in the Niger River, Benin and Niger, both former French subjects of French West Africa, relations are close.

Israel was once a close development partner with Niger and a major donor.

Although unofficial, ties remained close, with Israel remaining a major donor to Niger.

Nigeria maintains close relations with the Republic of Niger, in part because both nations share a large Hausa minority on each side of their 1500 km border.

The African leaders with close ties to France — especially during the Russo – American Cold War ( 1945 – 91 ) — acted more as agents of French business and geopolitical interests, than as the national leaders of sovereign states, such as Omar Bongo ( Gabon ), Félix Houphouët-Boigny ( Côte d ' Ivoire ), Gnassingbé Eyadéma ( Togo ), Denis Sassou-Nguesso ( Republic of the Congo ), Idriss Déby ( Chad ), and Hamani Diori ( Niger ).

On his return journey, begun on 30 July, he took a route more to the south than that originally followed, keeping close to the Niger as far as Bamako, thus tracing its course for some 300 miles.

International observers from the European Union, and the U. S. National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute also reported widespread voting irregularities, including in the restive oil producing Niger delta where Obasanjo's party had without explanation won close to 100 % of the votes.

In mid-2003, the U. S. government declassified the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, which contained a dissenting opinion published by the U. S. Department of State stating that the intelligence connecting Niger to Saddam Hussein was " highly suspect ," primarily because State Department's intelligence agency analysts did not believe that Niger would be likely to engage in such a transaction due to a French consortium which maintained close control over the Nigerien uranium industry.

It is a trade center for its agricultural region because it sits at the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers, and is close to the new federal capital of Nigeria in Abuja.

They live in the eastern part of the Niger Delta, Rivers State, Bonny District ; part of them in the Defaka ward of Nkoroo town in close relationship with the Nkoroo people, and another part of them on the isolated island of Iwoma Nkoro, near Kono.

He was born in the village of Bakaridianna, on the Niger River close to Ségou and died in Bamako.

Niger pursues a moderate foreign policy and maintains friendly relations with both East and West.

In the early 1990s formal relations were again reestablished, only to be severed by Niger over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The United Kingdom, for instance, operates its permanent office for relations to Niger from Accra, Ghana, while Niger's permanent representative resides at the Nigerien Embassy in Paris.

Algeria has friendly relations with its neighbors in the Maghreb, Tunisia and Libya, and with its Sub-Saharan neighbors Mali and Niger.

Several countries once had diplomatic relations with Israel, but have since broken or suspended them ( Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela in Latin America ; Mauritania in the Arab League ; Chad, Guinea, Mali and Niger in non-Arab Africa ; and Iran until the Islamic revolution ).

* Joseph Roger de Benoist, Église et pouvoir colonial au Soudan français: les relations entre les administrateurs et les missionnaires catholiques dans la Boucle du Niger, de 1885 à 1945.

Category: Foreign relations of Niger

Whatever the feelings of the broader Tuareg community in Niger, 2007 saw a complete break in relations between ex-combatants and the government.

The former Prime Minister of Niger Ibrahim Hassane Mayaki reported to Wilson that he was unaware of any contracts for uranium sales to rogue states, though he was approached by a businessman on behalf of an Iraqi delegation about " expanding commercial relations " with Iraq, which Mayaki interpreted to mean uranium sales.

Category: Foreign relations of Niger