Human rights organizations are pressing the military council in Niger to release politicians in the overthrown government who have been arrested or placed under house arrest, after charging President Mohamed Bazoum with high treason.
On Tuesday, the Associated Press quoted Ali Idrissa, executive secretary of a local human rights group, as saying that they had submitted requests to see these officials and see their health conditions, but they were not answered by the leaders of the coup that took place on July 26.
Most notable arrests:
• Minister of the Interior and Decentralization, Amadou Soli.
• Oil Minister Mahamane Sani Mahamadou, son of former President Mahamandou Issoufou.
• Minister of Mines, Oseni Hadizatu.
• Chairman of the National Executive Committee of the ruling party, Formakwe Gado.
• Minister of Transport, Umaru Malam Alma.
• Former Deputy Defense Minister, Kala Mutari.
• Minister of Vocational Education, Qusoum Mokhtar.
• Director General of the Postal Service of Niger, Idrissa Kani, who is the son of Niger’s ambassador to Paris, Aisha Bulama Kani, who refused to be dismissed from her post, and considered the junta’s rule “illegitimate.”
Bazoum negotiating paper in the hands of the putschists
About the fate of these people, the Nigerien researcher, Jilani Hashem, told Sky News Arabia: “Most of the officials and ministers who were arrested were placed under house arrest, and a female minister was also released.”
Hashim believes that “the putschists have not tried them yet, because the matter has not yet been settled for them, just as they cannot move President Bazoum from his residence in the presidential palace because it represents a pressure card in their hands.”
He added, “Their talk about the trial of President Bazoum is an attempt by them to put the ECOWAS organization before a fait accompli, and to negotiate with it a transitional period in return for the release of the president.”
The chiefs of staff of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday in Ghana to discuss a possible military intervention in Niger to end the coup, regional military and political sources told AFP on Tuesday.
Predictable tribal conflicts
Hani El-Gamal, a researcher in regional and international affairs, agrees that the military council uses Bazoum as a pressure card in its negotiations with external parties to consolidate its rule and prevent ECOWAS from military intervention.
Al-Jamal warned that Bazoum’s trial on charges of high treason “will inflame the situation at home, because this will weaken the forces of the (Sahel Arabs), who are a minority population in Niger, especially after they lost their political positions after the fall of power.”
Bazoum is considered the first chief of an Arab tribe to rule Niger, which is said to be from the Awlad Suleiman tribe coming from Libya, which in turn is attributed to the Bani Salim tribes coming from the Arabian Peninsula.
Among the possible effects of this, according to what El-Gamal predicts: “There will be great tribal influences that will complicate matters in the coastal countries, including the migrations of the coastal Arabs.”
He continued, explaining that “the expansion of the Hausa tribes in the region, which represents about 80 percent of the population of their countries, and the tribal interdependence between their branches there, will represent an imminent danger if a military intervention takes place in Niger (half of its population is Hausa). What happened in Niger is not only a military coup.” Rather, it will be followed by a social coup by the majority of Niger’s population against the minority.”
In a previous statement to “Sky News Arabia”, the academic and expert on African affairs, Dr. Muhammad Turshin, commented on the dismissal and arrest of some officials of the overthrown government, expecting some kind of disobedience from the dismissed ambassadors, ministers and some army leaders, but in the event of reaching a settlement with the leaders coup, the ambassadors will eventually obey orders.
Niger is the third country in West Africa to witness a coup since 2020, and it is a country that has a history full of coups since its independence from France in 1960, and it lives in extreme poverty despite its richness in rare resources such as uranium.
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2023-08-15 20:43:32
