Niger the beginning of the 20th century. What is now Niger was created from four distinct cultural areas in the pre-colonial era: the Zarma dominated Niger River valley in the southwest; the northern periphery of Hausaland, made mostly of those states which had resisted the Sokoto Caliphate, and ranged along the long southern border with Nigeria; the Lake Chad basin and Kaouar in the far east, populated by Kanuri farmers and Toubou pastoralists who had once been part of the Kanem-Bornu Empire; and the Tuareg nomads of the Aïr Mountains and Saharan desert in the vast north. Each of these communities,
Cameroon–Nigeria relations of not doing enough to fight Boko Haram even though the terrorist group frequently crosses into Cameroonian territory. Cameroon has been attacked several times by Boko Haram. Border closures after attacks in Nigeria in 2012 to prevent further infiltration by Boko Haram had a negative impact on the Cameroonian economy. In May 2014, in the wake of the Chibok schoolgirl kidnapping, "[Cameroon's] defense minister Edgard Allain Mebe Ngo'o met with Chad's minister of national defense, Benaindo Tatola, in Yaounde. Ngo'o said Chad had also deployed troops to work together with Cameroonian forces on the borders with Nigeria. He also said