Niger

Niger sits where the Sahara meets the Sahel—the Arabic word meaning 'shores'—a climatic edge effect that for millennia made cities like Agadez crucial nodes on trans-Saharan caravan routes trading salt, gold, and slaves. Today the country extracts 5% of global uranium, fuel for French nuclear reactors, yet 54% of Niger's 27 million people live in extreme poverty. The July 2023 coup that overthrew the French-allied government explicitly framed resource extraction as colonial parasitism: uranium prices surged 300% since 2021 to $106/pound, yet Niger saw little benefit from contracts signed decades ago.

The junta's response reveals resource nationalism as adaptive strategy. Within months of seizing power, the military revoked Orano's permit for the Imouraren mine (200,000 metric tons of uranium reserves), nationalized the Somaïr uranium subsidiary, and expelled French troops while inviting 100 Russian military trainers. The economic cost was severe—the 2023 budget was slashed 40%, Niger defaulted on $519 million in debt payments, and the World Bank projected 2024 growth at 45% below pre-coup estimates—but the calculus prioritizes sovereignty over short-term stability.

Niger now leads a Sahel alliance with Mali and Burkina Faso, three landlocked nations collectively rejecting French post-colonial influence while courting Russian and Chinese alternatives. Like the camel that evolved to cross the Sahara by storing resources for long journeys between oases, Niger is betting that enduring economic pain now will yield control over resources that uranium-hungry powers increasingly need. The Trans-Sahara Highway, completing its final 225km link through Niger in 2025, may reconnect the country to Mediterranean markets on terms its junta controls. Whether this represents mutualism or isolation depends on which direction the caravans flow.