25

under 914 m: 145 (2000 est.)

Nicaragua Military

Military branches: Army, Navy, Air Force

Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age

Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 1,269,322 (2001
est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49:
779,267 (2001 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 58,232
(2001 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $26 million (FY98)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1.2% (FY98)

Nicaragua Transnational Issues

Disputes - international: territorial disputes with Colombia over
the Archipelago de San Andres y Providencia and Quita Sueno Bank;
with respect to the maritime boundary question in the Golfo de
Fonseca, the ICJ referred to the line determined by the 1900
Honduras-Nicaragua Mixed Boundary Commission and advised that some
tripartite resolution among El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua
likely would be required; maritime boundary dispute with Honduras in
the Caribbean Sea is before the ICJ; legal dispute over navigational
rights of San Juan River on border with Costa Rica

Illicit drugs: transshipment point for cocaine destined for the US
and transshipment point for arms-for-drugs dealing

======================================================================

@Niger

Niger Introduction

Background: Not until 1993, 33 years after independence from France,
did Niger hold its first free and open elections. A 1995 peace
accord ended a five-year Tuareg insurgency in the north. Coups in
1996 and 1999 were followed by the creation of a National
Reconciliation Council that effected a transition to civilian rule
in December 1999.

Niger Geography

Location: Western Africa, southeast of Algeria

Geographic coordinates: 16 00 N, 8 00 E

Map references: Africa

Area: total: 1.267 million sq km

land: 1,266,700 sq km

water: 300 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Land boundaries: total: 5,697 km

border countries: Algeria 956 km, Benin 266 km, Burkina Faso 628
km, Chad 1,175 km, Libya 354 km, Mali 821 km, Nigeria 1,497 km

Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims: none (landlocked)

Climate: desert; mostly hot, dry, dusty; tropical in extreme south

Terrain: predominately desert plains and sand dunes; flat to rolling
plains in south; hills in north

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Niger Riv