NIGER

June 2010

Desert tourism has collapsed in the Aïr-Tenere and lately there has been an epidemic of banditry in northeast Niger. There was a quick military coup in February 2010.

Niger CFA XOF exchange rates
In some places you can pay in euros.

Price of fuel
Diesel 530 CFA/litre, petrol 670 CFA.

Costs
Expensive.

Useful languages
French, Hausa. Arabic is less useful than you think.

Visas
Needed by all except some EU countries. Consulates now include UK, Amsterdam, Brussels, Bonn and Tamanrasset (plus other West African cities). Note the requirements on vaccination certificates, return tickets and bank statements.

Getting a visa in the UK (Thanks to Alberto A).

They are based in Rochford, Essex, 5 mins from the station and those who have not travelled to Niger before need attending an interview in person.
The office is located in the building of an organization called MILD. The Public Relations Officer is an Englishman called Anthony Puncher.

Niger Consular Office, Great Britain
Bradley House
Locks Hill
Rochford
Essex
SS4 1BB

Tel: 01702 533172
Fax: 01702 533162
consul @ niger-embassyuk.org

Cost of 1 month tourist visa: £132

Documents needed:
• Certificate of Yellow Fever vaccination
• Passport
• Return air ticket
• Completed visa application form (downloadable from website)
• Letter from employer or bank statement
• 1 passport photograph
• Tour agency's invitation letter

 

You can get an Algeria visa in Agadez: see this from June 2008.

Border formalities
With a vehicle buy a laissez-passer (local vehicle carnet) and insurance (both cover the whole CFA zone). Flying Paris to Agadez with Le Point charters (for example) is no drama, but when the same plane returns to Paris expect delayed departures and very often not arriving at the same Paris airport you took off from.
Arriving at Assamaka from In Guezzam (Algeria) apparently you can go to Arlit without an escort, although see this from December 2009 (it could have been a one-off) and this from March 2010.
Arlit to Agadez and southwards: no more escort. More here. However, the town of Tahoua (southwest of Agadez on the road to Niamey) does appear particularly risky lately, with shoot-outs and attempted kidnappings in late 2009, probably by AQIM units operating out of east Mali.

Desert pistes
Safe independent travel was always hit and miss in this region and has long required a guide and permits costing from €50 a day in your car or at least three times that in his own car. There is now a new risk of mines in the Aïr. No one has been there for a couple of years but as described in the book, the Tenere Loop (as followed on the Eclipse link below) remains one of the best 2-week tours in the Sahara. The run down from Bilma to Nguigmi and Lake Chad is initially through heavy dune fields.

The route from El Gatrun to Madama on p.601 in the book was updated in 2005 but was closed by the Libyans in 2006.