Niger

The discovery of oil in Nigeria’s Niger Delta in 1956 triggered a chain of events that has led to the political and economic marginalisation of the inhabitants. Despite 40 years of oil production and hundreds of billions of dollars of oil revenue, the people of the Niger Delta remain in abject poverty without even the most basic amenities such as water and electricity. Rivers, farmland and fishing creeks have been subjected to devastation, due to the activities of the Western oil companies op...read more

The rights and freedoms of the citizens and communities were significantly scorned in Niger in 2000, according to the Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Niger (ANDDH). ANDDH reported that there was a "serious infringement" of the rights to life, health, education, work, physical integrity and other rights.

Abdoulaye Tiémogo, the publication director of the weekly magazine Canard Déchaîné was released from jail on Decemner 7. Tiémogo was sentenced to six months' imprisonment on 19 October for "defamation", and had been in detention for seven weeks.

The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is currently implementing an education initiative in two largely nomadic regions of Niger. The programme focuses on sustaining school enrolment in a Catholic primary school in the northern Tuareg region of Tchirozerine, as well as in public primary schools in Bermo, primarily inhabited by the Peul people, a statement from CRS said.

Signifying a further breakdown in some of West Africa's environmental ecosystems, the last giraffe population in the region has shrunk from just 100 to a much smaller and endangered number found in Niger's Koure region, 60 km east of the capital Niamey.

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