Niger

Check travel advice. Most governments advise against all travel

The advisory position first: the UK Foreign Office and most Western equivalents advise against all travel to Niger. There was a coup in 2023, armed groups operate widely, and kidnapping risk for foreigners is assessed as high. Consular support is extremely limited. This page is reference material.

Niger is one of the hottest countries in the world and around eighty percent Sahara. Agadez, the historic Tuareg city at the desert edge, has a sixteenth-century mud-brick minaret that is among the tallest structures of its kind. The Air Mountains and Tenere Desert beyond it form a UNESCO site of extraordinary emptiness.

The country also has the last wild giraffes in West Africa, a distinct subspecies living unfenced alongside farming communities near Kouré, and the W National Park shared with Benin and Burkina Faso. The Gerewol courtship festival of the Wodaabe Fulani, where men wear elaborate makeup and dance to be chosen by women, is one of the most photographed cultural events in Africa.

Annual events and festivals

• Gerewol (Sep) — Wodaabe men in makeup and ornament dance for hours to be selected by women. Genuinely unlike anything else.
• Cure Salee, Ingall (Sep) — a gathering of Tuareg and Wodaabe herders at the salt flats, of which Gerewol forms part.
• Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha (varies) — the main holidays in a Muslim-majority country.
• Independence Day (3 Aug) — marks 1960 independence from France, coinciding with a tree planting day.
• Bianou, Agadez (varies) — a Tuareg festival with turbaned processions and camel displays.
• Republic Day (18 Dec) — marks the 1958 proclamation of the republic.
• Mawlid (varies) — the Prophet birthday.
• Hotoungo and Djerma ceremonies (varies) — traditional celebrations in the southwest.
• Salt caravans, Bilma (Oct-Mar) — camel caravans still carry salt across the Tenere.
• Giraffe season, Koure (dry months) — not a festival, but when the herds are most visible.