(SenePlus) – Nine months after the military coup of July 26, 2023 in Niger, democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum still remains hostage to the junta led by General Tiani, reveals an investigation published Wednesday April 24, 2024 in Le Figaro. Despite international condemnations and the efforts of his family and lawyers to have him released, his arbitrary detention now seems accepted by the international community.
According to information collected by the French newspaper from relatives of the Nigerien president, Mohamed Bazoum and his wife are being held in precarious conditions in a wing of the presidential residence. Deprived of their freedom and means of communication, they are only allowed to receive brief medical visits. Worse, the junta has accused them since October of a fake escape attempt, revealing, according to those close to the presidential couple, “their desire to smear them a little more.”
Another concern is the recent arrival of Russian soldiers suspected of espionage and the growing rapprochement between the junta and Moscow. “This is proof that France is not the only country rejected by the putschists,” says a Togolese economist cited by the survey, emphasizing “the wind of rejection from Western nations” blowing across the Sahel. On May 10, Mohamed Bazoum could even be sentenced during a political trial orchestrated by the junta.
Despite repeated calls from ECOWAS for his release and the decision of its Court of Justice ordering it, the Nigerien junta has turned a deaf ear. Worse, the African regional organization lifted some of its sanctions against Niger at the end of February. “We cannot count on them,” laments a former Ivorian minister, accusing “international organizations of abandoning Mohamed Bazoum.”
Only her family and the lawyers she mobilized, including figures like Reed Brody, continue to fight legally. But after 9 months of arbitrary detention, the fate of the democratically elected Nigerien president seems to have been forgotten by the international community.
