Madarounfa

Region

Madarounfa is a town and the capital of the eponymous department Madarounfa in Niger.

Geography

Madarounfa located in the large landscape Sudan. The city is divided into five districts, 33 administrative villages, six traditional villages and 16 hamlets. The five districts are Kahin Sarki, Katchi Nawa, Limantchi, Sabon Gari and Zongo Bougage.

Madarounfa is located on the banks of the Mafarounfa Lake which is fed by temporarily drying up river Goulbi N'Gabi and represents one of the few permanent open waters of the country. The lake, with an average circumference of five kilometers, reached its highest water level during the rainy season in the months of July and August. The excess water is drained through a channel in the river bed of Goulbi N'Maradi.

The area around the town was once densely forested. Of these residues can only be left, but here is one of the greenest parts of Niger with enormous baobab trees. The forest of Madarounfa is a 830 -acre reserve, in which the free grazing of livestock is prohibited.

Madarounfa shares land borders with the neighboring state of Nigeria. The neighboring communities in Niger are Djiratawa and Safo in the north, Dan - Issa in the east and Gabi in the West. The average annual rainfall is 539 millimeters in Madarounfa, the number of rainy days per year on average 40 ( measurement period 1995-2006).

History

The French colonial administration made ​​Madarounfa 1944 seat of a canton of the same name. The capital of the arrondissement Maradi was moved in 1966 Madarounfa and the district was renamed at the same time in Madarounfa. From the district went Madarounfa 1998, the Department Madarounfa forth. 2002 divided the territory of the canton Madarounfa on communities Madarounfa and Dan Issa as part of a nationwide administrative reform.

Population

In the 1977 census Madarounfa had 3453 inhabitants in the census 1988, 5914 inhabitants at the 2001 census and 8743 inhabitants. For 2010 73.362 inhabitants were, after the enlargement of the municipal area is calculated. The population is majority owned by the ethnic group of the Hausa.

Culture and sights

In the town, there are 99 graves of Madarounfa. According to tradition, 99 holy men of Islam are buried here. Twenty of the graves are marked by knee-high stone walls. For the local population, the site is considered as a holy place, occur at the strange light phenomena.

The forest, the lake and the 99 graves of Madarounfa were proposed in 2006 by the Nigerien Ministry of Culture of UNESCO as world heritage.

Economy and infrastructure

The main economic activities are agriculture, animal husbandry and trade. The market days are Wednesday and Friday Madarounfa. On Madarounfa lake fishing activity. The lake also serves as a cattle trough. Madarounfa is located on the National Road 18, which connects the village to the regional capital of Maradi.

The primary school of Madarounfa was founded in 1948. Since 2001, a district hospital is in the city. Madarounfa is also the seat of the Tribunal d' Instance, one of the nation's 30 civil courts, which is below the ten civil courts of first instance (Tribunal de Grande Instance ) are.