The top tourist destination in Niger until the late 1980s, the city of Agadez – located in the dead centre of the country – is today no more than a shadow of its former self. The travel agencies and boutiques selling objets d’art that once proliferated there have mostly shut down. Western tourists who used to be drawn to the Ténéré, one of the most vast and beautiful deserts in the world, come no longer, due to the recurrent rebellions in the region.
The first armed rebellion between 1990 and 1995 was led by the Tuaregs – the dominant ethnic group in that area – and there has been renewed conflict since February 2007. The Tuareg rebel leaders declare that they have taken up arms again because the terms of peace accords signed in 1995 have not been met and local people have seen no benefit from the sale of uranium extracted from their region.
