Nomadic Tuaregs roam across the Sahel countries south of the Sahara, including Mali, Niger, Algeria, Mauritania and Burkina Faso

Photo: A Tuareg caravan travels north through a remote region of southern Niger July 4, 2005. Nomadic Tuaregs are an ethnic minority who roam across the Sahel countries south of the Sahara, including Mali, Niger, Algeria, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. (Reuters/Finbarr O'Reilly July 4, 2005)



Photo: A Tuareg tribesman walks alongside camels through a remote region of southern Niger July 4, 2005. (Reuters/Finbarr O'Reilly July 4, 2005)



Photo: A caravan of Tuareg nomads travels north through a remote region of southern Niger July 4, 2005. (Reuters/Finbarr O'Reilly July 4, 2005)

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Niger to integrate 500,000 students enrolled at Islamic schools

Photo: A student studies at a school for Koranic studies in Niamey, Niger. Niger is moving quickly to integrate more than a half-million students enrolled at Islamic schools into the national education system to avoid perceptions that Koranic institutions are breeding grounds for radicalism. (AFP/File/Issouf Sanogo July 16, 2005)

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Ijaw militants in oil-rich Niger Delta

Photo: Three armed Ijaw militants watch television at Okorota, one of their village hideouts in the mangrove swamps of the Niger Delta. Nigeria's bid to appease the separatist forces threatening to tear her apart plunged into crisis when leaders from the oil-rich Niger Delta stormed out of a political reform conference. (AFP/File/Pius Utomi Ekpei July 11, 2005)



Photo: A malnourished child waits for treatment at a feeding center run by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontiers in the town of Maradi in southern Niger July 1, 2005. The situation in Niger highlights Africa's plight days ahead of next week's Group of Eight industrialized nations summit in Scotland, where Britain plans to put fighting poverty on the (Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters July 12, 2005)

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Niger: 3.6 million people short of food - 43,000 people live as slaves

Photo: Mariama Oumarou, 20, recounts how she escaped a life of slavery during an interview in Niger's capital Niamey in this July 3, 2005 file photo. Describing scenes that sound like horror stories from past centuries, the testimonies of women once trapped in lives of servitude suggest slavery is thriving in the West African country of Niger despite the government's denials. London-based human rights group Anti-Slavery International says 43,000 people live as slaves in Niger. Picture taken July 3, 2005. (Finbarr O'reilly/Reuters July 11, 2005)



Photo: Girls carry water from a well at a village in southern Niger, July 2, 2005. The worst drought in years has left 3.6 million people short of food in the West African country. Already counted among the poorest of the world's poor, Niger's farmers simply cannot afford to buy what is still on offer. Their children, in ones and twos, are beginning to die, for want of a few cents worth of food. Poverty is killing them. As the Group of Eight industrialised countries meet in Scotland next week to discuss ways to help Africa, Niger's emaciated children provide a case study of rich world inaction. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly July 2, 2005



Photo: A farmer listens to his transistor radio as he returns home from work near the village of Koumboula in southern Niger June 30, 2005. Aid workers say cases of malnutrition have rocketed among children in Niger in the past few months after the worst drought in years aggravated chronic food shortages in one of the world's poorest countries, which lies just south of the Sahara. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly June 30. 2005)

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