🇳🇪 Republic of the Niger (Nijar)
Visiting: High Risk
Do not go to Niger unprepared: the risks are real. Same-sex relationships are criminalised, which places it 122nd for LGBT rights, so LGBT travellers should weigh this carefully. Its best measures are only mid-range: women's safety is fair, ranking 89th, and freedom is only partly protected, at 111th. Its weakest measure is the roads, which are among the deadliest anywhere, placed 164th.
Homicide
Intentional homicides per 100,000 people — lower is better.
Niger: 9.4
Ranked 36th in the world for the highest homicide rate.
Why this rank?
Nine killings per 100,000 people a year is well above the world average and close to the ten that marks the deadliest countries.
Is it safe to visit?
Take it seriously. The rate is high on the WHO's estimate — twice Niger's own last count, made in 2012.
Road Fatalities
Road-traffic deaths per 100,000 people per year — lower is better.
Niger: 24.9
Ranked 17th in the world for the deadliest roads.
Why this rank?
Twenty-five deaths per 100,000 people a year is well above the world average of fifteen but short of double it.
Is it safe to visit?
Not safe, whether you're driven or walking — a third of the deaths are pedestrians.
Conflict
Conflict deaths inside the country in the last twelve months, as recorded by the Uppsala conflict database, civilians killed on purpose, and any UN sanctions or court order over a war. The worst of those sets the colour. Lower is better.
Niger: 3.80
Ranked 25th most conflict-affected country in the world.
Why this rank?
1,173 people died in fighting inside Niger in the year to July 2026, 353 of them civilians killed on purpose.
Is it safe to visit?
Not safe. Tillabéri in the west is the worst of it, and the junta is losing ground. Niamey itself has been attacked.
Freedom
Six freedoms rated 0–4 by Freedom House — protest, speech, press, religion, movement and due process. The weakest rating sets the colour, and the total places the country inside it — higher is better.
Niger: 5.62
Ranked 70th least free country in the world.
Why this rank?
In Niger the lowest are press and due process at 1. Total 10 of 24.
Is it safe to visit?
A junta took power in a July 2023 coup, dissolved governing institutions and restricted civil liberties. Militant groups make much of the country insecure.
LGBT Rights
LGBT equality in law and daily life — higher is better.
Niger: Illegal
Ranked 59th least equal in the world for LGBT people.
Why this rank?
Criminalised by the new penal code of February 2026, with five to ten years for same-sex acts and up to twenty for a same-sex marriage. Any criminal law is red.
Is it safe to visit?
Not safe. Deeply conservative and entirely closeted before the law, and now a criminal matter for a visitor too.
Women's Safety
Women's safety — feeling safe out at night, political violence against women, a fair hearing in court, and how normal violence at home is, with the night figure setting a floor on the colour — higher is better.
Niger: 7.23
Ranked 89th safest country in the world for women.
Why this rank?
Sixty-three percent of women feel safe out alone at night and the courts rate fairly. Attacks on women were recorded in 2024, and over half of women think wife-beating can be justified.
Is it safe to visit?
A woman travelling alone will find Niger reasonable.