{"id":154866,"date":"2023-08-24T19:22:10","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T17:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/niger-ensure-safety-rights-of-detained-president\/"},"modified":"2023-08-24T19:22:11","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T17:22:11","slug":"niger-ensure-safety-rights-of-detained-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/niger-ensure-safety-rights-of-detained-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Niger: Ensure Safety, Rights of Detained President"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Military coup leaders in\u00a0Niger<\/a>\u00a0should ensure the safety and well-being of deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, his family, and others arbitrarily detained, Human Rights Watch said today. The military should respect fundamental human rights, including by releasing all those arbitrarily detained, and bring about a swift transition to civilian democratic rule.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

On July 26, 2023, Nigerien army officers overthrew President Bazoum and proclaimed the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (Conseil National pour la Sauvegarde de la Patrie, CNSP). Hours later, the national council announced that the constitution had been dissolved, all government institutions suspended, the nation\u2019s borders closed, and a nighttime curfew imposed. On July 30, the national council\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0the closure of its airspace \u201cin the face of the threat of intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNigerien coup leaders are subjecting Bazoum and his family and undisclosed others to abusive treatment in violation of international human rights law,\u201d said\u00a0Carine Kaneza Nantulya<\/a>, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cAll those arbitrarily detained should be immediately released and provided with adequate food, basic services, and access to doctors, lawyers, and family members.\u201d<\/p>\n

On August 9 and 10, Human Rights Watch spoke to Bazoum, his doctor, his family lawyer, a former communications adviser, and a family friend.<\/p>\n

The military coup leaders detained Bazoum along with his wife and 20-year-old son on July 26 but have not brought him before a judge or charged him. He described his family\u2019s treatment in custody as \u201cinhuman and cruel\u201d: \u201cI haven\u2019t had electricity since August 2 and no human contact since August 4. I\u2019m not allowed to receive my family members [or] my friends who have been bringing food and other supplies to us.\u201d He said that without electricity they have been forced to eat dry food, nothing fresh. \u201cMy son is sick, has a serious heart condition, and needs to see a doctor,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve refused to let him get medical treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bazoum\u2019s doctor and lawyer both confirmed that they have not had access to Bazoum or any of his family members since the coup. A family friend said that the detention conditions were \u201caffecting not just him but his wife and son, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

On August 9, United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres\u00a0denounced<\/a>\u00a0\u201cthe deplorable living conditions that President Bazoum and his family are reported to be living under.\u201d CNN\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that day that Bazoum was kept isolated and forced to eat dry rice.<\/p>\n

The military coup leaders have not publicly reported the names of those in detention. There are reports that some family members of officials are also in custody.<\/p>\n

Nigerien coup leaders should publicly account for the whereabouts and conditions of Bazoum and other detainees, Human Rights Watch said. They should also allow the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights, the national human rights commission, and independent human rights monitors to visit Bazoum and other detainees. All those detained should be promptly brought before a judge and be appropriately charged or released.<\/p>\n

Bakary Sambe, director of the Timbuktu Center, a well-known African research organization, told Human Rights Watch, \u201cRegional and international actors should prioritize human rights in the Niger crisis, especially when, as in Niger, senior officials are held hostage and used for political leverage. [They] should be careful and not allow such maneuvering to become a trend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The military coup occurred within the context of\u00a0armed Islamist groups\u2019 attacks<\/a>\u00a0against Niger\u2019s security forces and civilians and a complex humanitarian crisis in which\u00a04.3 million people<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 about 17 percent of the population \u2013 require humanitarian assistance.<\/p>\n

On August 10, the coup leaders formed a\u00a021-member government<\/a>\u00a0headed by the politician and economist Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as prime minister. The same day, ECOWAS leaders convened a second extraordinary summit and decided to\u00a0uphold regional sanctions and activate<\/a>\u00a0the ECOWAS standby force.<\/p>\n

\u201cNigerien military leaders should recognize that they are accountable for any human rights violations against those in custody, including Bazoum, his family, and others they have detained,\u201d Kaneza Nantulya said. \u201cNiger\u2019s regional and international partners should press the Nigerien authorities to fully respect everyone\u2019s human rights and bring about a prompt transition to democratic rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).<\/i><\/p>\n

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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Central Africa Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download logo Military coup leaders in\u00a0Niger\u00a0should ensure the safety and well-being of deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, his family, and others arbitrarily detained, Human Rights Watch said today. The military should respect fundamental human rights, including by releasing all those arbitrarily detained, and bring about a swift transition to civilian democratic rule. On July 26, 2023, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":154867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/60d80c333445d54","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[258,256,4696,281,3707,4691,450,279,280,9925,257,404,2450,5100,4672,254],"class_list":["post-154866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dr-congo","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-central-africa","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-detained","tag-dr-congo","tag-dr-congo-news","tag-drc","tag-drc-news","tag-ensure","tag-news","tag-niger","tag-president","tag-rights","tag-safety","tag-south-africa-today"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/60d80c333445d54","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}