Kelakam is a town in the Diffa Region, 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....

 of southeastern 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...

.

Location

It lies on the RN1 east-west highway of which runs between 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...

 and Niamey

Niamey

-Population:While Niamey's population has grown steadily since independence, the droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s, along with the economic crisis of the early 1980s, have propelled an exodus of rural inhabitants to Niger's largest city...

, about halfway between the larger towns of Goudoumaria

Goudoumaria

Goudoumaria, Niger is a town in the southeast of the country, in Diffa Region, northwest of Diffa. Goudoumaria is an administrative post in the Maine-Soroa Department, and is approx. 50km north of the Nigerian border and approx...

 to the west and Maine-Soroa

Maine-Soroa

Maine-Soroa is a town in southeastern Niger, the capital of the Maine-soroa Department, and is in turn part of Diffa Region. Population 10,176 .-Economy:...

 to the southeast. The town lies around 150km west-northwest from the regional capital of Diffa.

Agro-pastoral center

Situated 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, the area around Kelakam is used for stock raising (cattle, goats, camels) much of which involves seasonal transhumance

Transhumance

Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and to lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Only the herds travel, with...

, and intensive farming of cuvettes -- rocky sinkholes which collect water in an otherwise dry land. Kelakam hosts a Saturday market.

Kelakam is one site of ethnic Fula

Fula people

Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...

 pastoralist cooperatives formed as part of the UNDP "Nguigmi Peace Project". The project is designed to re-integrate former refugees and combatants from long simmering ethnic conflicts between Fula herders, and their Diffa Arab

Diffa Arabs

Diffa Arabs is the Nigerien name given to Arab nomadic tribespeople living in eastern Niger, mostly in the Diffa Region...

 and Daza

Daza

The Daza people are a semi-nomadic ethnicity living primarily in the Sahara regions of south-eastern Niger and north and central Chad. They consider themselves a warrior people, and are almost entirely Muslim. The Daza speak the Dazaga language. The increasing desertification of Africa has resulted...

/Tubu

Tubu

Tubu is a village in North-West District of Botswana. It is located close to Okavango Delta and it has a primary school. The population was 392 in 2001 census....

neighbors over pasturage, water, and other land use. Fula pastoralists based around the town raise sheep and goats, and produce cheese and other agricultural products.