The Niger River (/ˈnaɪdʒər/ NY-jər; French: (le) fleuve Niger [(lə) flœv niʒɛʁ]) is the main river of West Africa, extending about 4,180 kilometres (2,600 miles). Its drainage basin is 2,117,700 km² (817,600 sq mi) in area.^[11] Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border.^[12][13] It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive delta, known as the Niger Delta,^[14] into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded by the Nile and the Congo River. Its main tributary is the Benue River.

The Niger has different names in the different languages of the region:

• Fula: Maayo Jaaliba 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤴𞤮 𞤔𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭𞤦𞤢
• Manding: Jeliba ߖߋ߬ߟߌߓߊ߬ or Joliba ߖߏ߬ߟߌߓߊ߬ "great river"
• Tuareg: Eġərəw n-Igərǝwăn ⴴⵔⵓ ⵏ ⴴⵔⵓⵏ "river of rivers"
• Songhay: Isa "the river"
• Zarma: Isa Beeri "great river"^[15]
• Hausa: Kwara كوَرَ
• Nupe: Èdù
• Yoruba: Ọya "named after the Yoruba goddess Ọya, who is believed to embody the river"
• Igbo: Orimiri or Orimili "great water"
• Ijaw: Toru Beni "the river water"

The earliest use of the name "Niger" for the river is by Leo Africanus^[16] in his Della descrittione dell’Africa et delle cose notabili che ivi sono, published in Italian in 1550.^{[citation needed]} Nevertheless, "Nigris" was already the name of a river in West Africa, as mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Solinus, among others.^[17] Whether this river was the same as the actual Niger, or rather the river also known as Ger (currently known as Oued Guir, in Morocco), is a matter of discussion. This Nigris was said to divide "Africa proper" from the land of the (Western) Ethiopians to the south, and its name (as well as that of the river Ger) might well come from the Berber phrase gr-n-grwn meaning "river of rivers", as the current Tuareg name for the river Niger.^[18] As Timbuktu was the southern end of the principal Trans-Saharan trade route to the western Mediterranean, it was the source of most European knowledge of the region.

Medieval European maps applied the name Niger to the middle reaches of the river, in modern Mali, but Quorra (Kworra) to the lower reaches in modern Nigeria, as these were not recognized at the time as being the same river.^[16] When European colonial powers began to send ships along the west coast of Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Senegal River was often postulated to be the seaward end of the Niger. The Niger Delta, pouring into the Atlantic through mangrove swamps and thousands of distributaries along more than 160 kilometres (100 mi), was thought to be coastal wetlands. It was only with the 18th-century visits of Mungo Park, who travelled down the Niger River and visited the great Sahelian empires of his day, that Europeans correctly identified the course of the Niger and extended the name to its entire course.

The modern nations of Nigeria and Niger take their names from the river, marking contesting national claims by colonial powers of the "upper", "lower" and "middle" Niger river basin during the Scramble for Africa at the end of the 19th century.

As part of the West Africa Sahel region, Niger river has a hot climate characterized by very high temperatures year-round; a long, intense dry season from October–May; and a brief, irregular rainy season linked to the West African monsoon.^[19]

The Niger River is a relatively clear river, carrying only a tenth as much sediment as the Nile because the Niger's headwaters lie in ancient rocks that provide little silt.^[20] Like the Nile, the Niger floods yearly; this begins in September, peaks in November, and finishes by May.^[20] An unusual feature of the river is the Inner Niger Delta, which forms where its gradient suddenly decreases.^[20] The result is a region of braided streams, marshes, and large lakes; the seasonal floods make the Delta extremely productive for both fishing and agriculture.^[21]

The river loses nearly two-thirds of its potential flow in the Inner Delta between Ségou and Timbuktu to seepage and evaporation. The water from the Bani River, which flows into the Delta at Mopti, does not compensate for the losses. The average loss is estimated at 31 km³/year but varies considerably between years.^[3] The river is then joined by various tributaries but also loses more water to evaporation. The quantity of water entering Nigeria was estimated at 25 km³/year before the 1980s and at 13.5 km³/year during the 1980s.

The most important tributary is the Benue River which merges with the Niger at Lokoja in Nigeria. The total volume of tributaries in Nigeria is six times higher than the inflow into Nigeria, with a flow near the mouth of the river standing at 177.0 km³/year before the 1980s and 147.3 km³/year during the 1980s.^[3]

Drainage basin

The Niger River basin, located in western Africa, covers 7.5% of the continent and spreads over ten countries.

Niger River basin: areas and rainfall by country^[3]

More information Country, Area of the country within the basin ...

Country	Area of the country within the basin		Average rainfall in the basin (mm)
	(km2)	(%)
Algeria	193,449	8.5	20
Benin	46,384	2.0	1,055
Burkina Faso	76,621	3.4	655
Cameroon	89,249	3.9	1,330
Chad	20,339	0.9	975
Côte d'Ivoire	23,770	1.0	1,466
Guinea	96,880	4.3	1,635
Mali	578,850	25.5	440
Niger	564,211	24.8	280
Nigeria	584,193	25.7	1,185
For Niger basin	2,273,946	100.0	690

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Hydrometric stations on the Niger River^{[23][8][24][2]}

More information Station, River kilometer (rkm) ...

Station	River kilometer (rkm)	Altitude (m)	Basin size (km2)	Multiannual average discharge
				Year start	(m3/s)	(km3)
Niger Delta	0	0	2,273,946	1914	7,922.3	250
Lower Niger
Onitsha	270	14	2,240,019	1914	6,470.8	204
Lokoja	480	34	2,204,500	1914	5,754.7	182
Baro	600	47	1,845,300	1914	2,349.8	74
Jebba	810	73	1,751,000	1970	1,457.3	46
Kainji Dam	900	100	1,711,300	1970	1,153.9	36
Middle Niger
Gaya	1,120	156	1,404,600	1929	1,086.7	34
Malanville	1,130	157	1,399,238	1929	1,086.7	34
Niamey	1,420	176	791,121	1929	893.4	28
Ansongo	1,770	241	647,527	1949	806.8	26
Gao	1,860	245	549,876	1947	875.6	28
Timbuktu	2,460	256	382,469	1975	950.7	30
Inner Delta
Diré	2,540	257	372,588	1924	1,113	35
Mopti	2,900	261	308,186	1922	1,742.9	55
Upper Niger
Ké Macina	3,050	271	143,361	1945	1,330	42
Ségou	3,200	280	132,838	1945	1,344.5	42
Koulikoro	3,440	289	119,029	1907	1,351	43
Bamako	3,500	316	114,800	1907	1,371.2	43
Siguiri	3,600	337	67,631	1967	919	29
Kouroussa	3,800	357	18,900	1950	232	7
Faranah	4,040	424	3,196	1950	69.5	2

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Average, minimum and maximum discharge of the Niger River at Koulikoro (Upper Niger), Niamey (Middle Niger) and Lokoja (Lower Niger). Period from 2000/06/01 to 2023/05/31.^[9][25][26]

Average discharge of the Niger River at Niger Delta (period from 2010 to 2018):^[7]

The main tributaries from the mouth:

^[28][8]

At the end of the African humid period around 5,500 years before present, the modern Sahara Desert, once a savanna, underwent desertification. As plant species sharply declined,^[29] humans migrated to the fertile Niger River bend region, with abundant resources including plants for grazing and fish.^[30] Like in the Fertile Crescent, many food crops were domesticated in the Niger River region, including yams, African rice (Oryza glaberrima), and pearl millet.^[31] The Sahara aridification may have triggered, or at least accelerated, these domestications.^[29] Agriculture, as well as fishing and animal husbandry, led to the rise of settlements like Djenné-Djenno in the Inner Delta, now a World Heritage Site.^[32]

The region of the Niger bend, in the Sahel, was a key origin and destination for trans-Saharan trade, fueling the wealth of great empires such as the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai Empires. Major trading ports along the river, including Timbuktu and Gao, became centers of learning and culture. Trade to the Niger bend region also brought Islam to the region in approximately the 14th century CE. Much of the northern Niger basin remains Muslim today, although the southern reaches of the river tend to be Christian.

Classical writings on the interior of the Sahara begin with Ptolemy, who mentions two rivers in the desert: the "Gir" (Γειρ)^[33][34] and farther south, the "Nigir" (Νιγειρ).^[35][36] The first has been since identified as the Wadi Ghir on the north-western edge of the Tuat, along the borders of modern Morocco and Algeria.^[35][37] This would likely have been as far as Ptolemy would have had consistent records. The Ni-Ger was likely speculation, although the name stuck as that of a river south of the Mediterranean's "known world". Suetonius reports Romans traveling to the "Ger", although in reporting any river's name derived from a Berber language, in which "gher" means "watercourse", confusion could easily arise.^[38] Pliny connected these two rivers as one long watercourse which flowed (via lakes and underground sections) into the Nile,^[39] a notion which persisted in the Arab and European worlds – and further added the Senegal River as the "Ger" – until the 19th century.

While the true course of the Niger was presumably known to locals, it was a mystery to the outside world until the late 18th century. The connection to the Nile River was made not simply because this was then known as the great river of "Aethiopia" (by which all lands south of the desert were called by Classical writers), but because the Nile like the Niger flooded every summer. ^[40] Through the descriptions of Leo Africanus and even Ibn Battuta – despite his visit to the river – the myth connecting the Niger to the Nile persisted.

Many European expeditions to plot the river were unsuccessful.^[41] In 1788 the African Association was formed in England to promote the exploration of Africa in the hopes of locating the Niger, and in June 1796 the Scottish explorer Mungo Park was the first European to lay eyes on the middle portion of the river since antiquity (and perhaps ever). He wrote an account in 1799, Travels in the Interior of Africa.^[42] Park proposed a theory that the Niger and Congo were the same river. Although the Niger Delta would seem like an obvious candidate, it was a maze of streams and swamps that did not look like the head of a great river. He died in 1806 on a second expedition attempting to prove the Niger-Congo connection.^[43] The theory became the leading one in Europe.^[43] Several failed expeditions followed; however the mystery of the Niger would not be solved for another 25 years, in 1830, when Richard Lander and his brother became the first Europeans to follow the course of the Niger to the ocean.^[43]

In 1946, three Frenchmen, Jean Sauvy, Pierre Ponty and movie maker Jean Rouch, former civil servants in the African French colonies, set out to travel the entire length of the river, as no one else seemed to have done previously. They travelled from the beginning of the river near Kissidougou in Guinea, walking at first till a raft could be used, then changing to various local crafts as the river broadened and changed. Two of them reached the ocean on March 25, 1947, with Ponty having left the expedition at Niamey, somewhat past the halfway mark. They carried a 16mm movie camera, the resulting footage giving Rouch his first two ethnographic documentaries: "Au pays des mages noirs", and "La chasse à l’hippopotame". A camera was used to illustrate Rouch's subsequent book "Le Niger En Pirogue" (Fernand Nathan, 1954), as well as Sauvy's "Descente du Niger" (L'Harmattan, 2001). A typewriter was brought as well, on which Ponty produced newspaper articles he mailed out whenever possible.^[44]

The water in the Niger River basin is partially regulated through dams. In Mali the Sélingué Dam on the Sankarani River is mainly used for hydropower but also permits irrigation. Two diversion dams, one at Sotuba just downstream of Bamako, and one at Markala, just downstream of Ségou, are used to irrigate about 54,000 hectares.^[3] In Nigeria the Kainji Dam, Shiroro Dam, Zungeru Dam, and Jebba Dam are used to generate hydropower.

The water resources of the Niger River are under pressure because of increased water abstraction for irrigation. The construction of dams for hydropower generation is underway or envisaged in order to alleviate chronic power shortages in the countries of the Niger basin.^[45] The FAO estimates the irrigation potential of all countries in the Niger river basin at 2.8 million hectares. Only 0.93m hectares (ha) were under irrigation in the late 1980s. The irrigation potential was estimated at 1.68m ha in Nigeria 0.56m ha in Mali, and the actual irrigated area was 0.67m ha and 0.19m ha.^[3]

• Azawagh – Dry basin that once carried a northern tributary of the Niger River
• Niger Basin Authority – Intergovernmental organization in West Africa