RTA (also Rta or R.T.A.) is a village in northern

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesAgadez Agadez ( Air Tamajeq: ⴰⴶⴰⴷⴰⵣ, ''Agadaz''), formerly spelled Agadès, is the fifth largest city in Niger, with a population of 110,497 based on the 2012 census. The capital of Agadez Region, it lies in the Sahara desert, and is a ...

and

Arlit Arlit is an industrial town and capital of the Arlit Department of the Agadez Region of northern-central Niger, built between the Sahara Desert and the eastern edge of the Aïr Mountains. It is 200 km south by road from the border w ...

. Administratively, it falls under the

Agadez Region Agadez Region is one of the seven regions of Niger. At , it covers more than half of Niger's land area, and is the largest region in the country, as well as the largest African state subdivision. The capital of the department is Agadez. Histo ...

Arlit Department Arlit is a department of the Agadez Region in Niger. Its capital lies at the city of Arlit. As of 2012, the department had a total population of 105,025 people. Communes It is divided administratively into the following communes: *Arlit * Dann ...

, Dannet Commune. The village does not seem to have an official name, although some sources describe the locality where the village sprang up to have been named Anou Makarene, sometimes written as Anoumakaram. However, Anou Makarene is the name of the large

wadi Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet ( ephemeral) riverbed that contains water on ...

that passes just 1 km north of the village and that originates some 140 km further east, in the

Aïr Mountains The Aïr Mountains or Aïr Massif ( tmh, Ayăr; Hausa: Eastern ''Azbin'', Western ''Abzin'') is a triangular massif, located in northern Niger, within the Sahara. Part of the West Saharan montane xeric woodlands ecoregion, they ...

. RTA is thus a colloquial name, and is an abbreviation of ''Route de Tahoua-Arlit'' or ''Route de Tahoua-Agadez-Arlit''. This route (road) was built between 1978 and 1980 by the ''Société Financière pour la Construction de la Route Tahoua-Arlit'' (SFCTA) to provide access to the uranium mines at Arlit.
The current settlement was formed as a temporary camp where road builders lived with their families. Some merchants and traders joined them and at one time the locality had some 500 inhabitants. After the completion of the road many of them left but the settlement was not abandoned as the ''Service d'Entretien de la Route Tahoua-Arlit'' (SERTA) continued to operate a maintenance depot there. In the early 1990s the village was attacked several times by Touareg rebels, such as on 18 May 1992 when rebels looted the place. RTA was abandoned after the assassination of the village chief in one of these attacks.
People gradually returned after the end of the rebellion though. But according to the "Collectif Tchinaghen" (a group fighting against the influence of the mining industry in northern Niger) the village would have been abandoned again on 26 June 2008 after threats and harassment of the population by elements of the

Armed Forces of Niger The Niger Armed Forces (french: Forces armées nigériennes) (FAN) includes military armed force service branches (Niger Army and Niger Air Force), paramilitary services branches ( National Gendarmerie of Niger and National Guard of Niger) and ...

. 150 families would have left, their houses and gardens destroyed. They returned yet again. In February 2012 the ''Niger Media and Telecoms Landscape Guide'' mentioned RTA as a locality with a functioning community radio station. Currently (December 2018), the road from Agadez to Arlit has deteriorated to such a point that RTA is a welcome stop for tired truck and bus drivers. Many market stalls and the occasional small local restaurant sell food and drinks to travellers before they continue their journey. There is no gas station at RTA. Less than 2 km north of the village there's a military camp. Just south of RTA starts the side road to

Imouraren The Imouraren mine is a large mine located in the northern part of Niger in Agadez Region. Imouraren represents one of the largest uranium reserves in Niger having estimated reserves of 109.1 million tonnes of ore grading 0.06% uranium. It is the ...

and the

uranium mine Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. Over 50 thousand tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account ...

there.

Climate

RTA has a desert climate, categorized as "BWh" according to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

. The average annual temperature (day and night) is 28.0 °C; the average daily maximum temperatures in May and June are over 41 °C. In cold January nights temperatures may drop to 11 °C. Annual rainfall is around 66 mm; 74% of which falls in July and August. In the 8 months from October to May rainfall is just 3 mm.See
Climate-data.org
As data for RTA do not seem to be available, the data provided are those for the nearby village of Imouraren.

References

{{Reflist Populated places in Niger Agadez Region