Sambera

Region

Sambéra is a rural municipality in the department of Dosso in Niger.

Geography

Sambéra lies on the River Niger in the big landscape Sudan and is bordered to the southwest by the neighboring state of Benin. The neighboring communities in Niger are Falmey the northwest, Gollé in the north, the east and Yelou Tanda in the southeast. The municipality is divided into 58 administrative villages, 37 traditional villages, six villages and eleven stock. The main town of the rural community is Sambéra consisting of the administrative villages Sambéra Alfa and Sambéra Zeno.

The Forêt de classée Koulou is a 2060 acre protected nature woodland area in the municipality of Sambéra. The protected status was made in 1948.

History

Sambéra was founded in the late 19th century by Zarma, who settled in the area between the town and the river Niger Dosso. The name comes from the Sambéra Zarma word sambérou that names a tree. The French colonial administration founded in 1920 a canton Sambéra, but this was disbanded in 1940 and joined the Canton of Dosso. The rural community Sambéra originated as an administrative unit at a nationwide administrative reform in 2002. Here, the Canton Dosso was dissolved and divided its territory in eleven municipalities. 2009 tried flooding damage, of which about 1,300 residents were directly affected.

Population

At the 2001 census Sambéra had 36 746 inhabitants. For the year 2010 49.155 inhabitants were calculated. The population consists mainly of Zarma.

Economy and infrastructure

Agriculture and animal husbandry are the economic pillars of the community. They are threatened by frequent droughts and floods.