This week, Niger’s military junta released about 50 people from prison, including several former government officials, military officers, and a journalist who had been arrested following the July 2023 coup. Several others still languish behind bars on politically motivated charges, most notably former president Mohamed Bazoum and his wife.
The decision to release the prisoners followed recommendations by a national commission that represented participants to the February talks on the country’s transition to democratic rule. The release comes days after junta leader Abdourahamane Tiani was sworn in as Niger’s president for the next five years. All political parties have been dissolved.
Among those released are several of Bazoum’s ministers, including Mahamane Sani Issoufou, former oil minister, and Kalla Moutari, former defense minister, as well as Foumakoye Gado, secretary general of the former ruling party, the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (Parti Nigerien pour la Democratie et le Socialisme, PNDS-Tarayya), and journalist Ousmane Toudou.
Since the coup, the military junta has cracked down on the opposition, media, and peaceful dissent. The authorities have arbitrarily arrested several officials from the ousted government and people close to the deposed president, denying them due process and fair trial rights. The intelligences services detained many in secret before transferring them to high-security prisons on fabricated charges, including “threatening state security.” They have been brought before military courts, despite being civilians.
Bazoum and his wife remain in detention at the presidential palace in the capital, Niamey. In February, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, an independent expert body that investigates cases of deprivation of liberty, found that the detention of Bazoum and his wife was in violation of international human rights law, and called for their immediate release.
The prominent human rights activist and critic of the junta Moussa Tiangari, who was arbitrarily arrested in December 2024, also remains in detention on terrorism-related charges.
The junta’s release of former officials wrongfully held is a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done. Nigerien authorities should free all those, including Bazoum and his wife, who have not been credibly charged with recognizable crimes, and opposition figures and activists who have been targeted because of their political views. And the junta needs to recognize the rights to free expression, association, and peaceful assembly.
* Ilaria Allegrozzi is Senior Sahel Researcher at Human Rights Watch
