Original: A good possibility for a source of '' Niger '' remains the Tuareg phrase gher n gheren '' river of rivers '' , shortened to ngher , a local name used along the middle reaches of the river around Timbuktu .
Simplified: One possibility is the Tuareg phrase gher n gheren '' river of rivers '' , shortened to ngher or '' niger '' , from the middle of the river near Timbuktu .