The Kennedy Bridge is the main crossing for the Niger River

Niger River

The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...

 in Niamey

Niamey

-Population:While Niamey's population has grown steadily since independence, the droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s, along with the economic crisis of the early 1980s, have propelled an exodus of rural inhabitants to Niger's largest city...

, Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

. It was built in 1970, and named for United States President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

. Its construction enabled Niamey to expand onto the right bank of the river to the west. On 9 February 1990, a confrontation between students of the University of Niamey and police on the bridge left 20 civilians dead, and hastened the end of the military regime led by General Ali Saibou

Ali Saibou

Ali Saibou was the third President of Niger from 1987 to 1993 succeeding the deceased Seyni Kountché.A member of the Djerma people, he was born in Dingajibanda, a village in the Ouallam arrondissement. Although from Kountché's home village, Saibou is not a cousin...

.