Niger is a desert with catastrophic demographics.
Is it really though? I'm always curious to understand how malaria eradication in the US was so successful, primarily because, at least now anyways, we have a shit ton of mosquitos in the South. Why doesn't malaria rise up in the US again? Is the geography and climate of Africa just much more conducive to malaria?
The CDC has a good page about the eradication of malaria in the US, https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.htm..., and I understand the measures that were taken. But again, many days if I go out without slathering myself in bug spray in the summer I'll be covered with mosquito bites, so I don't understand why malaria isn't more common. Are our mosquito species just different?
Also in poor countries most people also get bitten in their house at night, with not screend doors or quality windows. I would assume this is pretty rare in well developed countries in comparison.
https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/index.html
Compare that to say, Niger:
> "Malaria remains a major public health issue in Niger and is endemic throughout the country. Malaria accounts for 28 percent of all illnesses and 50 percent of all recorded deaths. Children under five years of age account for about 62 percent of the burden of malaria."
https://www.pmi.gov/where-we-work/niger/
Notably, France has pulled billions of dollars worth of uranium out of its mines in Niger, while doing almost nothing to improve the economy of the country (which would provide the resources to run a decent malaria eradication campaign), so it's really just another colonial exploitation disaster tale.