town, southern Niger. Situated on the boundary between a cultivated zone (peanuts 【groundnuts】) and a drier pastoral zone (cattle, goats, and sheep), it is an important trading town. During the Sahel drought of the 1970s and 1980s it served as a refugee centre. It is a significant junction on the road between Agadez and Niamey, the national capital; it also has an airfield. Pop. (2001) 73,002.