Niger (/ˈnaɪdʒər/ or /niːˈʒɛər/; French: [niʒɛʁ]), officially the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. Niger covers a land area of almost 1,270,000 km², making it the largest nation in West Africa, with over 80 percent of its land area covered by the Sahara desert. The country's predominantly Islamic population of 17,138,707 is mostly clustered in the far south and west of the nation.