A truck carrying gold miners across the Sahara desert to far northern Niger drives outside Agadez, Niger, May 9, 2016. (Photo by Joe Penney/Reuters)

Deputy community chief of Yeneka village Douglas Oguta poses for a portrait in his home on the outskirts of the Bayelsa state capital, Yenagoa, in Nigeria's delta region October 8, 2015. Tensions are building in the swampland of the Niger Delta as an amnesty that aimed to bring stability to Nigeria's volatile southern region is due to expire at the end of the year. While the region's towns and cities are mostly calm, local residents say kidnappings and armed robberies are on the increase in the mangrove swamps, where most oil wells are located. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

Supporters of incumbent President Mahamadou Issoufou attend a campaign rally in Niamey, Niger, February 18, 2016. Niger holds presidential and legislative elections on Sunday. (Photo by Joe Penney/Reuters)

A street merchant waits for customers in Niamey, Niger, Monday, August 14, 2023. Niger's mutinous soldiers say they will prosecute deposed President Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason” and undermining state security. (Photo by Sam Mednick/AP Photo)

Baby giraffe of Niger (Giraffa Camelopardalis) “Kenai” (R), born on August 25, 2016, kisses his mother “Dioni” on August 31, 2016 at the zoo of La Fleche, northwestern France. (Photo by Jean-Francois Monier/AFP Photo)

Soldiers stop to buy goods at the main market of Diffa, Niger, March 23, 2015. Diffa is where Nigerien and Chadian troops fighting insurgent group Boko Haram are based at. (Photo by Joe Penney/Reuters)

People sit near a fully loaded in Madama near the border with Lybia on January 1, 2015. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian paid a surprise visit to northern Niger on January 1, to visit a base being built to combat the growing flow of weapons and jihadists from neighbouring Libya. Le Drian travelled from Chad to Madama, a desert outpost about 100 kilometres from Libya, where he saw in the New Year with troops at a French base. Madama is situated on the route used by jihadists and arms smugglers in southern Libya to reach northern Mali and Niger. (Photo by Dominique Faget/AFP Photo)

Malian workers haul out a boat they use to carry sand collected from the river bed during a routine maintenance on October 7, 2018, in the port of Bamako. Increasing construction in the Malian capital has boosted the demand for bricks made out of high-quality Niger River sand. (Photo by Michele Cattani/AFP Photo)