Crossword Genius

Queen almost raised in African republic (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

niger

'african republic' is the definition.
(African country)

'queen almost raised' is the wordplay.
'queen' becomes 'regina' (Latin for 'queen').
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'raised' is a reversal indicator (going up in a down clue).
'regina' with its final letter taken off is 'regin'.
'regin' back-to-front is 'NIGER'.

'in' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for niger that I've seen before include "Land-locked country and river of W Africa" , "The black" , "River of West Africa" , "Major West African river" , "Part of Africa" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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