ua

Military branches:
Army (includes Navy, Air Force)

Military service age and obligation:
17 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
males age 17-49: 1,309,970 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
males age 17-49: 1,051,425 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males: 65,170 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$32.8 million (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
0.7% (2004)

Transnational Issues Nicaragua

Disputes - international:
Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in 1999 and against
Colombia in 2001 at the ICJ over disputed maritime boundary
involving 50,000 sq km in the Caribbean Sea, including the
Archipelago de San Andres y Providencia and Quita Sueno Bank; the
1992 ICJ ruling for El Salvador and Honduras advised a tripartite
resolution to establish a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca,
which considers Honduran access to the Pacific; 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

This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005

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@Niger

Introduction Niger

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 by December 1999. Niger
is one of the poorest countries in the world with minimal government
services and insufficient funds to develop its resource base. The
largely agrarian and subsistence-based economy is frequently
disrupted by extended droughts common to the Sahel region of Africa.

Geography Niger

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