• International Calendar 2025


​Niger

Republic of Niger 

République du Niger

Western Africa

AREA 502K mi2; 1.3M km2 [23rd largest of 257countries]

ARABLE 12% 

POP 25.4M(51/mi2; 20/km2) [56th highest of 237 countries]

GOV’T Semi-presidential republic 

CAPITAL Niamey (1.4M) 

GDP/CAPITA $1,200

UNEMPLOYMENT 0.8% 

IN POVERTY 41% 

LIFE EXP 61 years 

MEDIAN AGE 15 yrs 

INFANT MORT 66/1K live births (6th

LITERACY 37% 

LANGUAGES French (official), and 10 national languages, including Arabic, Buduma, Fulfuldé, Guimancema, Hausa, Kanuri, Sonay-Zarma, Tamajaq, Tassawaq, and Tubu

RELIGIONS Muslim 99%, Christian/animist/none <1%

HEALTH 6% of GDP 

EDUCATION 4% of GDP (125th

MILITARY 2% of GDP (76th

LABOR FORCE 

Agriculture 42%, industry 19%, services 39%

PCVs 1962–2011  CURRENT: 0; TTD: 3,174

Niger

Traditional garb provides both comfort in the heat and protection from dust for these Nigerien elders, who have come to inspect newly arrived refugees from Nigeria, just across Niger’s southern border. Niger lies land-locked in West Africa, with 80% of its land within the Sahara Desert. For years, Niger has hosted refugees from Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Chad, with whom they generously share water and land resources. Most recently, however, Niger has suffered its own turmoil, with the country thrown into chaos by a military coup d’état in 2023.


Geoffrey Adam Parker © 2021

U.S. Foreign Service, 2010–present 






​Adult Books

Still Waters in Niger
By Kathleen Hill

Format: 206 pages, Paperback
First published: May 17, 1999
Language: English

ISBN-10:0810151340
ISBN-13:978-0810151345


A New York Times Notable Book for 1999
Best Fiction of 1999, the
Los Angeles Times Book Review
Starred review,
Publishers Weekly
 
Finalist for 1998 Dublin IMPAC Literary Award


Summary:

The narrator of this book is an Irish-American woman who returns to the West African country of Niger where she had lived seventeen years earlier as the wife of an academic and the mother of three young daughters. Now she is visiting her eldest daughter, Zara, who has herself returned to Africa during a season of devastating drought and is working in a village clinic that cares for women and children suffering from starvation. Still Waters in Niger is a beautifully observed account of a return to a place at once exotic and familiar, as well as a tale of inner discovery. As the narrator reacquaints herself with her daughter and with the Africa of her past, she meets other mothers and their children. With her own memories of young motherhood strong, she becomes aware of the strikingly similar ways in which the impassioned and often difficult bonds between mothers and daughters are revealed across the divide of cultures. Hill paints a compelling portrait of a community of women grounded in kinship and care for their children, a society characterized not only by pain and exhaustion but by humor, delicacy, and strength. Filled with vivid, elegant descriptions and meditations on hunger, poverty, the desert, women, memory, and the love between mothers and daughters, Still Waters in Niger is the haunting story of a woman looking simultaneously backward and forward.

​Kids' Books

My First Book - Niger: All about Niger for kids
By Penelope Palette.

Publisher: Independently published: 2023.

Format: 44 pp.

ISBN: 979-8-39000-184-4

Age Range: 5-10 yrs.

Summary:

Examines the culture, the beauty, the landmarks, the food of Niger and more in a fun and educational way, using real life images.

​Films

Documentary:Niger ’66: A Peace Corps Diary
Director:
Judy Erola
Release Date: 2010

​Music

​Recipes

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