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,
Rail transport in Chad Imperial expansionist policy known as Mittelafrika. In the 1950s a line through Chad from Port Sudan to Nigeria was proposed but opposed by Chad governmental organisations. In 1958 plans for a line from Cameroon the "Société Civile d'Études du Chemin de Fer Douala-Tchad" (SEDOT) was formed, and continued planning led to start of construction in 1964 - the line was constructed as far as Ngaoundéré in Cameroon (the Trans-Cameroon Railway, completed 1975.). Initial plans were for an extension to Moundou in Chad, but this was not completed. In 1959 a multinational agency, the "Agence Transéquatoriale des Communications" (ATEC) was formed