The countdown has begun: on July 30, four days after the coup that overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum, ECOWAS had given the putschists seven days, i.e. until Sunday evening August 5, to restore him to his duties, on pain of using “force”. Several West African armies such as Senegal have said they are ready to send soldiers, as has Côte d’Ivoire, according to a source close to the Ivorian delegation in Abuja who did not specify the possible number of men mobilized.
But this Saturday Mohamed Bazoum is still detained by the putschists, and lives cloistered in his presidential residence, watched by his own guard, in the company of his wife and son.
In the columns of the Washington Post, for his first public statement since the coup d’état in Niger, he confided his concern at the risk of a rebound in terrorism and a region placed “under Russian influence” if the putsch succeeded. . He called himself, at the same time, a “hostage” of the putschists: “I write this as a hostage. Niger is under attack by a military junta which is trying to overthrow our democracy, and I am only one of the citizens who by the hundreds have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned”, begins Mohamed Bazoum, in this column published Thursday evening on the site of the American daily.
Since the beginning of his captivity, little is known about the conditions of this house arrest. Mohamed Bazoum nevertheless received a visit on July 31 from the President of Chad Mahamat Idriss Deby who spoke with him and posted a photo on his Twitter account.
According to France Info, however, he would have seen his living conditions harden, and would now be deprived of electricity and even food: “According to his relatives, contacted on Friday afternoon, Mohamed Bazoum is fine and categorically refuses to resign. . But his living conditions have drastically hardened. Still according to his relatives, President Bazoum no longer has electricity and the person in charge of sending him food can no longer access the palace, according to the latest news,” writes the journalist present in Niger.
Information also mentioned this morning at the microphone of the same radio by Niger’s ambassador to France, who added that the elected president would also no longer have access to drinking water. The diplomat The Ambassador of Niger in France “rejects” the decision of the putschists to put an end to her functions and considers “as null and void” the decision of the military authors of the coup d’etat who decided unilaterally to put an end to her functions. functions.
“Throughout the week, Mohamed Bazoum however continued to talk with relatives, who are secretly active, and with his international partners”, adds France Info, which quotes in particular an adviser according to whom the ousted president is in discussion with the United States, which is present militarily in Niger.
