Goudoumaria, Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

 (var. Goudomaria, Gudumaria) is a town in the southeast of the country, in Diffa Region, northwest of Diffa

Diffa

Diffa is a city and Urban Commune in the extreme southeast of Niger, near that country's border with Nigeria, with a population of 23,600 . It is the administrative seat of both Diffa Region, and the smaller Diffa Department...

. Goudoumaria is an administrative post in the Maine-Soroa Department

Maine-soroa Department

Maine-soroa is a department of the Diffa Region in Niger. Its capital lies at the city of Maine-soroa.-Population:The department's population is above 50,000, and is largely made up of ethnic Kanouris and Fula, both cultures with longstanding pastoral semi-nomadic traditions....

, and is approx. 50km north of the Nigerian border and approx. 50km east of the small city Soubdou.

Climate

Goudoumaria, historically an area of pastoralism and marginal farming, is in the Sahel

Sahel

The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....

 region, bordering the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...

. Desertification has led to a growth of Date palm

Date Palm

The date palm is a palm in the genus Phoenix, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. Although its place of origin is unknown because of long cultivation, it probably originated from lands around the Persian Gulf. It is a medium-sized plant, 15–25 m tall, growing singly or forming a clump with...

farming in recent decades.