Niger (1983: Doomsday)

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Niger (pronuonced Nee-Jeer) is a former nation in western Africa.

for Nigeria (1983: Doomsday) see: Nigeria

Pre-Doomsday

After the establishment of the Fifth French Republic on December 4, 1958, Niger became an autonomous state within the French Community. It gained full independence on August 3, 1960.

For its first fourteen years as an independent state, Niger was run by a single-party civilian regime under the presidency of Hamani Diori. In 1974, a combination of devastating drought and accusations of rampant corruption resulted in a coup d'état that overthrew the Diori regime. Col. Seyni Kountché and a small military group ruled the country until Doomsday.

Post Doomsday

It took several hours for news of Doomsday to reach the government of Niger, although no nuclear detonations occured the effects were still felt across the country. Within months all remaining food aid in the country had been used and the population began to starve.

The military government quickly and brutally clamped down on any demontrations against the government, thousands were killed, however this made the population more angry and rumors began circulating of massive food stores for the use of the military, government and their families while letting the rest of the people starve.

By the summer of 1984 the nuclear summer had begun to take effect and approximatly 80% of the crops in the country failed due to drought. Due to the massive food shortages,and the continued drought, the population of Niger crashed between 1984 and 1989 from just over 6 million to under 1 million

By late 1984 the population were dying due to starvation, however the staff of the government and military still appeared well-fed, fueling more rumors of secret food stores. In the capital city of Niamey, riots broke out in October 1984, many government buildings were ransacked and burned, the military cracked down hard, shooting thousands and many hundreds simply vanishing.

By December 1984 the military government could no longer control the populace, Col. Seyni Kountche and several of his advisers escaped south in Nigeria and disappeared, the military and police disbanded. A temporary government was sworn in however without the support of the military, it fell by January 1985 and the general population were left on their own.

As a country Niger ceased to exist during 1985.

Chaos reigned over the next two years as former police and military units became warlords, however due to the ongoing drought and food shortages even these began to fall by the late 1980's.

Former Niger in present times

When the nation of Niger collapsed, many areas reverted to small Hausa tribal kingdoms based around small farming townships, in the north many towns a cities were totally abandonded to the Sahara, with the population of around 1 million living in the relativly rich farmland in the south of the former nation.