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| - Niger, a vast desert nation that straddles both the Sahara and the troubled semi-arid Sahel, goes to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president and legislature. Here is a snapshot of its recent history. Niger gains independence from France on August 3, 1960. It sees the first of several coups in April 1974, before oscillating between military and democratic regimes until President Mahamadou Issoufou is elected in March 2011. Issoufou is now standing down after two terms but backs his protege, Mohamed Bazoum, in Sunday's election. In 2010 seven employees of the French nuclear giant Areva are kidnapped by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) from a uranium mine in Arlit in the north of the country. The last four men are freed in 2013. In May 2013 Niger is hit by two suicide attacks, against a military camp in Agadez and an Areva uranium site, in which 20 are killed by jihadists loyal to notorious Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar. In 2015 the Boko Haram jihadist group from neighbouring Nigeria carries out a spate of deadly attacks in the southeastern area of Diffa and against a military position on an island in Lake Chad, in which at least 74 are killed. Since 2016 the southeast has also been the scene of attacks by Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), a dissident branch of Boko Haram. On January 2 this year, 105 civilians are massacred by armed men in the villages of Tchoma-Bangou and Zaroumadareye in the western Tillaberi region in one of the worst such incidents in the Sahel. In late 2015 President Issoufou, who is seeking re-election, says a coup has been foiled with suspects arrested. The opposition rubbish the claim. In March 2016 Issoufou is reelected at polls boycotted by the opposition. A year later in March 2017 opposition leader and former premier Hama Amadou is sentenced to a year in jail for baby smuggling, a charge he says is aimed at sidelining him. After returning from self-imposed exile in 2019, he is locked up before being freed this year in a coronavirus prison release. In November 2017 the French-backed local anti-jihadist military force G5 Sahel is created for troubled regions of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. In late 2018 the Nigerian army deploys in force in the vast Tillaberi region near the border with Mali and Burkina Faso, which has become a hunting ground for jihadists, including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. Three attacks claimed by the so-called Islamic State kill 174 soldiers in late 2019 and early 2020. Army chiefs are fired. Six young French aid workers are killed with their Nigerien driver and guide on August 9 in the tourist hotspot of Koure, an attack also claimed by IS. On December 12, 34 people are massacred in a Boko Haram attack in the southeastern region of Diffa on the eve of delayed municipal and regional elections. acm-ang/jmy/fg/ri/ach/leg
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