Niger: Suspension of constitutional court - timeline
Searching more than 75 years of world history
- May 2009. President Mamadou Tandja dissolves the National Assembly to counter opposition to a planned referendum to allow him to extend his mandate by a third term.
- February 2009. Prime Minister Seyni Oumarou is elected as leader of the ruling National Movement for a Society of Development--Nassara (MNSD), replacing former Prime Minister Hama Amadou, who was under arrest on corruption charges.
- October 2008. In a landmark ruling, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice finds the government of Niger guilty of failing to protect a young woman who had been sold into slavery at the age of 12. It is estimated that some 43,000 people remained enslaved in Niger, despite the passage of legislation abolishing the practice.
- June 2008. Former Prime Minister Hama Amadou is arrested on corruption charges. He claims to be the victim of a politically motivated campaign to stop him standing for president in 2009.
- May 2008. Tuareg rebels accuse the army of using chemical weapons from China and Ukraine during recent operations in the north.
- October 2007. The medical aid group Mdecins sans Frontires suspends its activities in northern Niger because of increased insecurity in the region caused by Tuareg rebels.
- August 2007. The Tuareg rebellion in the north escalates and a state of emergency is imposed.
- June 2007. The government of Prime Minister Hama Amadou is dissolved after a majority in the National Assembly support a no-confidence vote. Seyni Oumarou is appointed as the new prime minister.
- April 2007. The Tuareg rebellion is re-launched when rebels from the Niger People's Movement for Justice (MNJ) attack a French-operated uranium mining site situated near the north-western town of Arlit.
- July 2005. The UN announces a third of Niger's population are short of food, including 800,000 children, and warn that about 150,000 children will die very soon.
- March 2005. A plan to release some 7,000 slaves in a public liberation ceremony in the desert region of Tillaberi is abandoned when none of the slaves attend. Human rights activists blame government threats against local leaders for the absence of any slaves.
- December 2004. Tandja Mamadou is re-elected for a second term as president. Accompanying elections to the National Assembly result in victory for the president's Movement of the Development Society Nassara (MNSD).
- August 2004. It is reported that Niger and other countries in the southern Sahel have been hit by a devastating locust invasion which has destroyed the harvest.
- August 2002. The government manages to bring under control a serious army mutiny in the south-eastern town of Diffa.
- November 1999. Tandja Mamadou of the Movement of the Development Society Nassara (MNSD) is elected as president.
- August 1999. The ruling military junta promulgates a new constitution that seeks to balance power between the president, the prime minister, and the legislature.
- April 1999. President Ibrahim Barre Mainassara is assassinated by his own presidential guard; Maj. Daouda Malam Wanke, head of the presidential guard unit responsible for the assassination, is named as the country's new leader.
- November 1997. Another peace agreement is signed by the government and Tuareg rebels from the north of Niger.
- November 1996. Elections to the National Assembly result in a victory for the National Union of Independents for Democratic Renewal (UNIRD), close to President Ibrahim Barre Mainassara.
- July 1996. Col Ibrahim Barre Mainassara is elected president, although his opponents accuse him of effectively staging a second coup.
- May 1996. A new constitution is promulgated and the ban on political parties revoked.
- January 1996. Army officers led by Col Ibrahim Barre Mainassara, the chief of general staff, seize power; they suspend the constitution, place President Mahamane Ousame and Prime Minister Hama Amadou under arrest, and suspend all political parties.
- April 1995. The government and Tuareg rebels sign a peace agreement to end a four-year conflict which had claimed more than 200 lives.
- March 1993. Presidential elections result in a victory for Mahamane Ousmane of the Alliance of the Forces of Change.
- February 1993. The first multiparty elections since independence in 1960 are held and the Alliance of the Forces of Change, a nine-party coalition, secures an absolute majority of seats in the National Assembly.
- December 1992. A referendum gives overwhelming approval to a new multiparty constitution.
- August 1991. A national conference suspends the constitution and strips President Ali Saibou of his executive power; the conference also takes charge of the security and armed forces.
- November 1990. President Saibou, under pressure from a campaign led by the trades union confederation to introduce democratic reforms, introduces a multiparty system.
- September 1990. The leaders of Niger, Mali, Libya, and Algeria meet to discuss the growing Tuareg rebellion in Niger and Mali.
- December 1989. President Saibou, the sole candidate, is confirmed as head of state in presidential elections.
- November 1987. President Seyni Kountche dies in a Paris hospital, aged 56. He is replaced by Col Saibou, the army chief of staff.
- October 1983. President Seyni Kountche, visiting France, survives a coup attempt.
- April 1974. President Hamani Diori is overthrown in a military coup led by the chief staff, Lt-Col Seyni Kountche.
- May-October 1973. Drought and famine conditions in Niger and other areas in the Sahel region of West Africa necessitate comprehensive relief operations to save hundreds of thousands of people from death by starvation.
- October 1970. In elections for the National Assembly the country's sole political party, the Parti progressiste nigerien, obtains 97 per cent of votes cast. Earlier, Hamani Diori was re-elected as president.
- September 1965. Diori, the sole candidate, is re-elected as president; Diori, who had become Prime Minister in 1958 and head of state on the achievement of independence in August 1960, was first elected president by unanimous vote of the National Assembly in November 1960.
- April 1963. Niger becomes a member of the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
- April 1961. A co-operation agreement is signed in Paris between France and Niger covering economic matters and defence.
- August 1960. Independence is proclaimed in Niamey by the head of state and prime minister, Hamani Diori 1
