Even in Niger, West Africa, one of the poorest countries in the world, my Nigerien friends regularly send me emails from their smart phones.
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Chinese oil companies already have interests in Niger, while Libya is looking for external partners as it opens up its energy sector to foreign investment.
Two suspected militants were seized in last week's raid which resulted in the deaths of two French hostages in Niger, Niger's security sources have revealed.
In Niger, President Issoufou fears armed conflict (and a tide of refugees) could spill into the country's northern regions and re-ignite its own Tuareg troubles.
Lutheran World Relief, a charity, is running cash-for-work schemes in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, in which workers build irrigation systems and replenish the soil.
Both attacks -- at the army barracks in Agadez in central Niger and a Somair uranium mine in Arlit in northern Niger -- happened about 5 a.m.
CNN: Report: Islamist militants claim 2 deadly attacks in Niger
Assistance provided in Barbados, Kenya and Niger will aim to reinforce cultural entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on capacity-building activities for local trainers in Kenya and in Niger.
The best is in the Sahara desert, particularly in Niger's Air mountains, in the Tibesti mountains of northern Chad and southern Libya, and in south-east Algeria's Tassili n'Ajjer range.
Officials in Niger, a major uranium exporter, said last month that plans for the EU mission had been brought forward because of the threat of militant attacks from Mali.
In Niger the government has had to work hard to distance itself from dozens of Qaddafi loyalists, including at least one son, who have taken refuge in the country.
Similarly, Jenny Aker of the University of California at Berkeley analysed grain markets in Niger to see how the phasing-in of mobile-phone coverage between 2001 and 2006 affected prices.
French officials have said they were arrested in connection with the case of a French national arrested in Niger while trying to join Jihadist groups in neighbouring Mali last year.
Sierra Leone made news in 2012 with eye-popping economic growth figures boosted by strong iron ore exports while in Niger it was uranium and oil exports that brought impressive growth.
The Obama administration has positioned the U.S. to take a wider military role in Africa by opening a base operating American military drones in Niger, in part, to support the Mali work.
Friday night it gave foreign oil interests in Nigeria, especially Shell, which the main operator in Niger Delta, till midnight Friday to leave the area or face what one commander called total war.
Mr Le Drian also said during his interview that seven French citizens who had been taken hostage in Niger and Mali in recent years "are alive", and there had been "contacts with hostage-takers".
Although he is a full-time professor, Wall last year opened the Danja Fistula Center in Niger, a 42-bed hospital specializing in fistula repair surgeries with an operating room, outpatient clinic and hostel facilities for about 100 women.
Twenty soldiers and five assailants were killed, and at least 30 other people -- including civilians -- were injured in attacks about 200 kilometers (124 miles) apart in Niger early Thursday, the African nation's defense minister said.
CNN: Report: Islamist militants claim 2 deadly attacks in Niger
In February, the U.S. announced the setting up of a drone base in Niger, as part of the current international effort to search and fight al Qaeda and other Islamist guerrilla fighters in North and West Africa.
Similarly, Jenny Aker of the University of California at Berkeley carried out an analysis of grain markets in Niger, published in 2008, to see how the phasing-in of mobile-phone coverage between 2001 and 2006 affected grain prices.
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That column looked at the role of Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, in investigating claims about Iraq's nuclear ambitions -- specifically reports that Iraq had tried to buy uranium ore in Niger and elsewhere in Africa.
Last month, the US and Niger struck an agreement on the status of US forces as the two nations "define precisely what kind of military presence we may have in Niger in the future", a spokeswoman for the US state department said.
BBC: Mali conflict: US deploys 100 troops to neighbour Niger
Pentagon spokesman George Little said the role of the U.S. military in Niger "has not yet been defined" -- but Niger's ambassador to the United States, Maman Sidikou, told CNN that his government has agreed to let U.S. drones operate from its territory.
CNN: U.S. to base surveillance drones in Niger, ambassador says
The RCMP has been criticised for its handling of other matters in recent months - including the kidnapping of Robert Fowler, a diplomat who was snatched in Niger, as well as failing to prevent a riot in Vancouver after a hockey game in June.
France still has a number of hostages in northern Mali, including four of its citizens captured by Mali-based militants in neighboring Niger in 2010 while working for Areva, the French uranium mining consortium.
After independence, nine countries in the Niger River Basin in Africa created a joint river basin authority to cooperatively manage their joint water resources.
Kreddha has been involved in mediation work in the Niger Delta, and in New Caledonia between a mining corporation, Goro Nickel, and an indigenous environmental organisation called Rheebu Nuu.
According to some press reports the attack at Abiteye in Delta State was carried out by oil thieves angry that the military Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta is succeeding in its effort to stop illegal oil bunkering in the area, thereby jeopardising the livelihood of local bandits who often masquerade as militants.
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The BBC's Will Ross in Lagos says Okah may no longer be a headache for the Nigerian authorities but the threat of instability in the Niger Delta remains strong, despite a fall in the levels of violence since a 2009 amnesty.
Many of these groups have been backed by political figures or ethnic figures in the Niger Delta, to vie for influence ahead of elections in 2007.
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