50 free Niger trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Niger, not to be confused with its neighbour Nigeria, is a landlocked republic the size of Western Europe with four-fifths of its territory in the Sahara. It is named for the great river that curls through its south-west, was carved out of the trans-Saharan trading world of the Songhai, Kanem-Bornu and Hausa states, and has been through five coups since independence, the latest in 2023. This quiz covers the geography (Niamey, the Aïr Mountains and Mont Idoukal-n-Taghès, the Ténéré, Lake Chad, W National Park and the last West African giraffes), the empires and sultanates, Queen Sarraounia and the French conquest, the colony of 1922, Hamani Diori and independence on 3 August 1960, Kountché, Tandja and the 2023 junta. It also covers what Niger runs on and lives by: uranium from Arlit that once made it the world's fourth producer, the salt caravans to Bilma, the Cure Salée and the Wodaabe beauty pageant, the Hausa language and the ten national languages, the world-record fertility rate, the Tree of Ténéré and the flag with an orange disc. Easy questions ask which desert dominates; hard ones want the name of the 1916 Tuareg revolt and the year France finally occupied Agadez. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Niger, Niamey, the flag, Agadez, the Aïr Mountains, the Niger River, the Ténéré, the Tree of Ténéré, the Wodaabe and Niger's mining industry, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital of Niger?
Niamey
It sits in the south-west corner of the country on the Niger River.
Q 02Roughly what share of Niger's land lies within the Sahara?
Over 80%
Most of the 29 million people live in clusters in the south and west.
Q 03Which of these countries does NOT border Niger?
Ghana
The neighbours are Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Algeria.
Q 04Niger ranks where in size among African countries?
Sixth-largest
Only Chad is a bigger landlocked country on the continent.
Q 05Niger takes its name from what?
A river
Linguists agree it does not come from the Latin niger, despite early belief.
Q 06The name Niger may derive from a Tuareg phrase meaning what?
River of rivers
Leo Africanus first recorded the modern spelling in 1550.
Q 07The Niger River is the third-longest in Africa after which two rivers?
The Nile and the Congo
It runs about 4,180 km from the Guinea Highlands to the Gulf of Guinea.
Q 08Which ethnic group makes up around 56 percent of Niger's population?
Hausa
Their language is the country's official language.
Q 09Which language did Niger's 2025 charter make the country's official language?
Hausa
The junta's 2025 charter displaced French; ten other indigenous languages hold national-language status.
Q 10What is the highest point in Niger?
Mont Idoukal-n-Taghès
It rises to 2,022 m in the mountains of the north.
Q 11Which Saharan sultanate, founded around 1449 in the far north, was conquered by Songhai in 1515?
Aïr
France was unable to occupy its capital until 1906.
Q 12The Sultanate of Damagaram, founded around 1730-40, was centred on which town?
Zinder
The town briefly served as the colonial capital from 1912 to 1922.
Q 13Which Lake Chad empire controlled Bilma and Kaouar in eastern Niger in the 13th century?
Kanem-Bornu
It later shifted west of the lake and became known as Bornu.
Q 14Which Fulani scholar declared a jihad in 1804 and founded the Sokoto Caliphate?
Q 21Which colonel seized power in 1974 and ruled until his death in 1987?
Seyni Kountché
He tried to build a 'development society' funded by the mines of the desert north.
Q 22President Mamadou Tandja was ousted in 2010 after trying to do what?
Extend his term by rewriting the constitution
He had dissolved the Constitutional Court when it ruled his referendum illegal.
Q 23Which president was overthrown in the coup of 26 July 2023?
Mohamed Bazoum
General Omar Tiani was proclaimed head of state two days later.
Usman Dan Fodio
Some Hausa states fled south, such as Katsina, which moved to Maradi.
Q 15French officers' 1899 massacre at Birni-N'Konni was retaliation for which queen's resistance?
Sarraounia
It is regarded as one of the worst massacres in French colonial history.
Q 16Niger became a distinct colony within French West Africa in which year?
1922
The colonial capital moved back to its current site that same year.
Q 17The Tuareg Kaocen revolt against the French took place in which years?
1916-17
Its leader fled to Fezzan, and a puppet sultan was installed in the north.
Q 18Niger gained full independence from France on which date?
3 August 1960
The leader of the Nigerien Progressive Party became the first president.
Q 19Who was Niger's first president?
Hamani Diori
He ran a one-party state for 14 years until a 1974 coup.
Q 20How many coups d'état has Niger experienced since independence?
Five
There have been four periods of military rule.
Q 24After the 2023 coup, Niger joined Mali and Burkina Faso in forming what?
The Alliance of Sahel States
It was set up in opposition to threatened ECOWAS military intervention.
Q 25ECOWAS sanctions after the 2023 coup cut which vital import from Nigeria?
Electricity
Nigeria had supplied 70 to 90 percent of Niger's power.
Q 26Which mineral, mined near Arlit, has been Niger's key export since the 1970s?
Uranium
In 2006 Niger was the world's fourth-ranked producer.
Q 27The Akokan operation near Arlit held what distinction until it closed in 2021?
Largest underground uranium mine in the world
It produced 75,000 tonnes of ore concentrate from 1978.
Q 28The Tree of Ténéré, once considered the most isolated tree on Earth, was destroyed how?
Knocked down by a truck driver
The allegedly drunk Libyan driver hit it in 1973; the dead trunk was moved to the National Museum in the capital.
Q 29The Tree of Ténéré was what kind of tree?
An acacia
It had survived for about 300 years alone in the desert.
Q 30The historic centre of which Saharan city, seat of a Tuareg sultanate, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
Agadez
Its Grand Mosque dates from 1515 and was rebuilt in the same style in 1844.