Goure (fr. Gouré) is a town in southeastern

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesZinder Region Zinder Region is one of the seven regions of Niger; the capital of the region is Zinder. The region covers 145,430 km². It is the most populous province of Niger. History Numerous Palaeolithic and Neolithic remains, as well as cave paintin ...

Goure Department Goure is a department of the Zinder Region in Niger. Its capital lies at the city of Goure Goure (fr. Gouré) is a town in southeastern Niger, Zinder Region, Goure Department, of which it is the seat. Situation Situated on the main all ...

, of which it is the seat.

Situation

Situated on the main all-weather east–west highway in Southern Niger, it is about 170 km east of regional capital,

Zinder Zinder (locally, ''Damagaram''), formerly also spelled Sinder, is the third largest city in Niger, with a population of 170,574 (2001 census);

, on the route east to

Diffa Diffa is a city and Urban Commune in the extreme southeast of Niger, near the border with Nigeria. It is the administrative seat of both Diffa Region, and the smaller Diffa Department.Geels, Jolijn, (2006) ''Bradt Travel Guide - Niger'', pgs. ...

N'Guigmi N'guigmi is a city and Commune of fifteen thousand in the easternmost part of Niger, very near to Lake Chad – lying on its shore until the lake retreated. It is a crossroads for the traditional camel caravans of the Toureg and for traders p ...

, and the Lake Chad area along Niger's border with Chad. Around 40 km to the north of Goure are the Koutous hills, which form the first foothills of the

Termit Massif The Termit Massif (Termit Mountains or simply the Termit) is a mountainous region in southeastern Niger. Just to the south of the dunes of Tenere desert and the Erg of Bilma, the northern areas of the Termit, called the Gossololom consists of ...

. These hills also mark the northeastern boundary of

Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...

settlement in Niger, with the desert and hills to the north sparsely populated by seasonal nomadic encampments, and the area to the east populated by a majority of settled

Kanouri The Kanuri people (Kanouri, Kanowri, also Yerwa, Baribari and several subgroup names) are an List of ethnic groups of Africa, African ethnic group living largely in the lands of the former Kanem Empire, Kanem and Bornu Empires in Niger, Nigeria ...

ethnic groups and

Toubou The Toubou or Tubu (from Old Tebu, meaning "rock people") are an ethnic group native to the Tibesti Mountains that inhabit the central Sahara in northern Chad, southern Libya and northeastern Niger. They live either as herders and nomads or as ...

pastoralists.

Agriculture and environment

The surrounding land is mostly dry grass Sahel dotted with acacia trees, with green patches formed by kouris (seasonal watercourses with underground water) and

cuvettes A cuvette ( French: cuvette = "little vessel") is a small tube-like container with straight sides and a circular or square cross section. It is sealed at one end, and made of a clear, transparent material such as plastic, glass, or fused quartz. ...

(natural depressions which retain seasonal rain water. Farming is dominated by millet production. The area around Goure is particularly threatened by desertification, and was in 2005 designated at the very northeastern edge of Nigerien farm land able to support its population. The area has thus become a centre for international anti- desertification efforts, where experiments by local and foreign organisations promote the use of windbreaks and scrub grids to fix soil and stop the influx of dunes. The agricultural region around Goure was devastated at several points since independence, with major droughts in the early 1970s, the mid 1980s, and

locust Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstanc ...

-induced crop loss famine in 1977 and 2005.

Population

The town has grown since the 1960s, with its importance as a weighstation on Niger's primary east–west highway. In 1970, the town had a population of 2,124, 7,612 in 1977, 8,951 in 1985, and a population of 13,422 by 2001. Goure also has a landing strip, with ICAO Code DRZG.airportfact.com

References

citin
(2001) Institut National de la Statistique du Niger
* James Decalo. ''Historical Dictionary of Niger''. Scarecrow Press/ Metuchen. NJ – London (1979) p. 153 * Finn Fuglestad. ''A History of Niger: 1850–1960''. Cambridge University Press (1983) p. 133–140 * Jolijn Geels. ''Niger''. Bradt UK/ Globe Pequot Press USA (2006) pp. 223–224 {{Authority control Communes of Niger Zinder Region