The Ordre du Mérite Saharien (Order of Saharan Merit) was established in 1958 as a reward for social, scientific, economic or administrative services rendered by French or foreign persons who participated in the development of

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

n regions. The medal is fashioned in the form of the

Agadez Cross The Agadez Cross (also Agadès Cross, Cross of Niger, French: Croix d’Agadez) is the most popular category of Saharan Berber jewelry made especially by the Tuareg people of Niger. Only a few of these pieces of jewelry exactly resemble a cross. ...

, a traditional emblem of the

Tuareg The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym, depending on variety: ''Imuhaɣ'', ''Imušaɣ'', ''Imašeɣăn'' or ''Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group, traditionally nomadic pastoralists, who principally inhabit th ...

clans inhabiting the area of the former

Sultanate of Agadez The Sultanate of Agadez (also known as Tenere Sultanate of Aïr, Sultanate of Aïr, or Asben") was a Berber kingdom centered first in the city of Agadez (initially, in the village of Tadaliza) in the Aïr Mountains, located at the southern edge o ...

Agadez Agadez ( Air Tamajeq: ⴰⴶⴰⴷⴰⵣ, ''Agadaz''), formerly spelled Agadès, is the fifth largest city in Niger, with a population of 110,497 based on the 2012 census. The capital of the eponymous Agadez Region, the city lies in the Sahara ...

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

. The order was deprecated by decree on 3 December 1963, and superseded by the

Ordre National du Mérite The (; ) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's establishment was twofold: to replace the large number of ...

. Extant members of the order are permitted to wear their original decorations.

Classes

The Order has three classes: *''Commandeur'' (Commander) *''Officier'' (Officer) *''Chevalier'' (Knight)

References

* * Awards established in 1958 1963 disestablishments Merite Saharien {{Orders-medals-stub