LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Niger: Lake Chad
built 636 days ago
Niger's agriculture was hurt by a major locust outbreak and drought in 2004, leading to famine and a need for international food aid in 2005. In Oct., 2006, the government began expelling Mahamid Arabs who had emigrated from Chad mainly during the 1970s and 80s; although the move, which was soon suspended after neighboring nations requested it be halted, was ostensibly for security reasons, observers believed that political, racial, and economic rivalries lay behind the explusion.
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Despite frequent drought, animal husbandry is still one on the main economic activities of Niger. Herds are maintained in the Saharan and north Sahelian zones, but in the agricultural Sahelian areas, stock raising is a sedentarized activity. Livestock product include cattle sheep goats and dromedaries. The Fulani... called Peul or Fulbe, are a primarily Muslim people found in many parts of West Africa, from Lake Chad to the Atlantic coast, with concentrations in Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Cameroon, Senegal, and Niger. Given this dispersion of Fulani groups, the Fulani interact with each other as herders and farmers. The typical Fulani are nomads, but after many years of integration with other cultures, and the depletion of their herds to environmental conditions, they rely on farming for livelihood.
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Substantial deposits of phosphates, coal, iron, limestone, and gypsum ... have been found in Niger. Niger has oil potential. In 1992, the Djado permit was awarded to Hunt Oil, and in 2003 the Tenere permit was awarded to the China National Petroleum Company. An ExxonMobil-Petronas joint venture now holds the sole rights to the Agadem block, north of Lake Chad, and oil exploration is ongoing. The parastatal SONICHAR (Societe Nigerienne de Charbon) in Tchirozerine (north of Agadez) extracts coal from an open pit and fuels an electricity generating plant that supplies energy to the uranium mines. There are additional coal deposits to the south and west that are of a higher quality and may be exploitable.
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Ruins of cities preserved by the arid climate of the Sahara Desert indicate that a highly civilized people inhabited Niger 4,000 years ago. In the last 1,000 years, three empires have controlled this historically-important crossroads of the Sahara. The Borno Empire ruled the East around Lake Chad from the eighth to the nineteenth centuries; the Hausa Empire controlled the central regions during most of this same time; and the Songhai Empire dominated western Niger until 1591.
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Countries surrounding Nigeria (Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Niger and Togo) should increase surveillance measures, the two organizations said in a joint statement. Veterinary staff should be mobilized to tighten border inspections and control.
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