Dosso is a city in the south-west corner of Niger. It lies 130–140 kilometres (81–87 mi) south-east of the capital Niamey at the junction of the main routes to Zinder and Benin. The seventh-most populous town in Niger and the largest in Dosso Region, it had an official population during the 2001 census of 43,561. It is the capital of its region—which covers five departments in the southwestern corner of the nation, as well as of its own department: Dosso Department. The city itself lies at the centre of its own Urban Commune.