Bankilare  Bankilaré (var. Bankilare, Bankilary) is a village and rural commune in Niger. Bankilaré commune, centered on the town of the same name, is in Téra Department, Tillabéri Region, in the northwestern corner of the country. The town lies 60 km north of Departmental capital Téra, and around the same distance from the Burkina Faso border (to the west) and the Mali border (to the north). Bankilaré town had an estimated sedentary population of 2,000 in the year 2002, mainly ethnically Tuareg and related Tuareg related groups The major Tuareg group centered on Bankilaré are the "Tenguereguedesh"  or "Tinguereguedech", a Uladen Aulliminden sub group, formerly a sedentary group bonded to the noble Kel Igirer Aulliminden. The name "Tinguereguedech" is derived from the Tamasheq language phrase meaning "I am under the protection of..." Smaller local nomadic populations also include the Loghmatten and Doufrafrak former bonded sub groups of the Kel Ansongo Tuareg,  and the Fula Gaobé. The Gaobé historically practice a combination of rain-fed seasonal farming and semi-nomadic cattle raising. Other local sedentary ethnic groups include the Songhai - Djerma peoples, and Gourmantche. The concentration of Tuareg population here sets the commune apart for the rest of the department, with the area north of Niamey and east of the river a largely Songhay "cultural zone". The rural areas immediately around the town are seasonally home to at least 10,000 nomadic Tuareg,  who take their animals to pastures far north and east of here during the rainy season (roughly June to September). Large portions of the local Tuareg population were historically slave or other bonded classes. One 2005 study found "practices related to slavery still exist among the Tuareg in Bankilaré" who continue to form "an endogamous group with special rights and obligations but without denying this group a Tuareg identity". Many from this community make seasonal migrations for seasonal labor to the Abidjan area, mirroring nomadic tuareg migrations north. Bankilaré's economy is based around pastoral livestock, local subsistence farming, and services to these populations.