Human rights in Niger ‘in free fall’ since coup: NGOs

Human rights in Niger are “in free fall” on the eve of the one-year anniversary of a coup that saw the military seize power, three international NGOs said Thursday.

General Abdourahamane Tiani, heading the military regime, seized power on July 26 last year, after deposing elected president Mohamed Bazoum over allegations of failing to protect the West African nation from jihadist attacks.

“The military authorities in Niger have cracked down on the opposition, media, and peaceful dissent since taking power in a coup one year ago,” said a statement by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

The groups called on the ruling authorities to “immediately release all those held on politically motivated charges; guarantee respect for fundamental freedoms, particularly the rights to freedom of expression, opinion, and association.”

Bazoum, who remains under strict detention with his wife Hadiza in the capital Niamey, should also be released, said Samira Daoud, Amnesty’s regional director for West and Central Africa.

According to the rights groups, the military regime had “arbitrarily arrested at least 30 officials from the ousted government, including former ministers, members of the presidential cabinet and people close to the deposed president, failing to grant them due process and fair trial rights.”

Among those arrested, aside from four were granted bail in April, “were detained in secret by the intelligence services, before being transferred to high-security prisons on trumped-up charges”, according to their lawyers cited in the statement.

Meanwhile, “media freedom has been severely restricted in the country”, with journalists being threatened and “arbitrarily” arrested, leading to self-censorship in fear of reprisals, the NGOs said.

In June, the regime reinstated prison sentences for cyber-crimes involving disseminating information that “may disturb public order”, a measure “that could be used to silence any voice deemed to be dissenting”, said Drissa Traore, secretary general of the FIDH.

At the end of January, a decree suspended the activities of the independent media group Maison de la Presse, while installing a new committee headed by the Interior Ministry to oversee the organisation, according to the NGOs.

On Friday, the military regime will be celebrating its first year in power with festivities lasting several days.

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AFP

(NAMPA / AFP)