The country had a long experience of European exploration with it becoming occupied by France in 1890 and later turning into a French colony in 1922 until achieving independence on April 3rd 1960, having briefly been an autonomous republic of the French Community for the two years before independence.

Since then, Niger has had a succession of unstable governments, either single party or military, with the latest coup occurring in 2010. Niger has also faced three Tuareg rebellions in 1961-1964, 1990-1995 and more recently in 2007-2009. Such instability has done little to address the enormous challenges facing Niger and its peoples; challenges including famine, lack of rainfall and poor harvests and poor access to education or health services.

Like in so many of the poorest countries in Africa, the average is is just 15 years old, with just under half the population being aged 0 -14 years old. Life expectancy is around 53yrs and over 10% of all children die at birth.

Those who survive are at risk of sexual exploitation and human trafficking for enforced begging, enforced working in in gold mines, domestic servitude and also for working in agriculture and stone quarries.