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Niger’s democratically elected former President Mohamed Bazoum and his wife Hadiza have spent more than 20 months in detention by a military that seized power in 2023 and this week cemented its grip on the country.
A former high school philosophy teacher who went on to become Niger’s interior minister, Bazoum represented a break with the past: His presidential inauguration in 2021 was hailed as the first peaceful democratic transition in the West African nation since it gained independence from France in 1960.
But he was ousted only two years later as Niger followed in the footsteps of neighboring Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso in returning to military rule. On Wednesday, coup leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani was sworn in as Niger’s president for a “transitional” five years.
Bazoum’s supporters have launched a global campaign for the 65-year-old’s release as they worry he and his wife are being forgotten. “They’re being used as hostages, as human shields, for their captors, who actually rule from the same palace,” Jeffrey Smith, executive director of advocacy group Vanguard Africa, told Semafor, urging world leaders to call for their release.
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Next month, a campaign group — supported by dozens of former heads of state or government — plans to lead a delegation to Washington, led by one of Bazoum’s daughters, urging the Trump administration to call for his release.
Earlier this year, a UN independent expert body determined that Bazoum and his wife’s detention violated international human rights law, and several countries leaders,′ including the US, France, and the UK, demanded Bazoum’s release at the time of his 2023 detention.
Reed Brody, one of Bazoum’s lawyers, last spoke to him in October 2023, a few days before Bazoum’s phone was taken away. The former president has been allowed a weekly visit by his doctor but has had no other contact with family members. Bazoum is “an honorable man who was democratically elected, who fought against corruption, and who wanted to improve education, particularly for girls,” Brody told Semafor. He “is a friend to the US, a friend to the West, who is now being forgotten and abandoned.”
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Niger’s military junta has detained at least 30 other officials from the ousted government, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
Last year, the regime revoked Bazoum’s presidential immunity and announced its intention to prosecute him for “high treason.”
In January, junta-ruled Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso formally withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States, a regional block better known as Ecowas. They have created their own security grouping known as the Alliance of Sahel States, breaking longstanding ties with partners such as the US and France.
Notable
- Russia is expanding its presence in resource-rich Niger as Niamey retreats from the West, New Lines Magazine reported.
- The departure of three junta-led states is a huge blow to West Africa’s regional bloc Ecowas, the BBC reported.