Today, Friday, the Commission for Human Rights announced that the isolated President of Niger is receiving inhuman and degrading treatment.
The Commission expressed concern about the conditions of detention of the isolated President of Niger, his wife and son.
In a related context, the president’s daughter told The Guardian that the deposed Nigerien leader and his family are being held in inhumane conditions by their military captors, who have cut off the electricity to the presidential residence, leaving them to lose weight rapidly while food rots in the refrigerator.
Zazia Bazoum, who was on vacation in France when her presidential guards detained Mohamed Bazoum last month, said she is in almost daily phone contact with her father, mother and brother, who she says live without clean water and depend on supplies of rice and pasta, despite The gas stove has run out of fuel.
“My family’s situation is very difficult at the moment… They stay in the dark, the weather in Niger is very difficult… so it’s very sad that they are always in the dark and the house is very hot… It’s okay for them, they say they They will keep fighting, but it’s hard for me (my brothers and I are abroad) to see our family in this situation and they can’t get out.”
International efforts to successfully pressure the military council to release her father, the democratically elected leader of the West African country, also failed.
General Abd al-Rahman Tiani and his allies appointed ministers to a new cabinet this week, signaling their intention to stay in power.
On Thursday, he ordered the leaders of the powerful regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to activate its reserve force, in a move seen as pressure on the military council to step down. On Friday, the largest body of the African Union called on the international community to spare Bazoum’s life, and the United States and the United Nations also expressed concerns about his health.
Yet Niger’s new military rulers have rejected diplomatic efforts to mediate, and there are fears that more aggressive tactics could lead to a messy conflict in the heart of the volatile and strategically important Sahel region.
