- By Beverly Ochieng & Farouk Chothia
- BBC Monitoring & BBC News
Mohamed Bazoum was toppled as president greater than two years after he took workplace
Niger’s army junta has introduced plans to prosecute deposed President Mohamed Bazoum for high treason and undermining nationwide safety.
This is the most recent signal that the junta intends to resist worldwide strain to return energy to Mr Bazoum.
He has been held within the basement of his palace because the army staged a coup about three weeks in the past.
Mr Bazoum was in “good spirits” regardless of being held in “difficult” situations, his physician mentioned after a go to.
Saturday’s go to was permitted amid rising worldwide calls for for Mr Bazoum’s launch.
But in an indication that it’s hardening its place, the junta mentioned in an announcement learn out on state TV that it had gathered proof to prosecute “the deposed president and his local and foreign accomplices for high treason and undermining the internal and external security of Niger”.
It didn’t give additional particulars.
Mr Bazoum, 63, is being held captive with his spouse and son and there have been rising issues about their well being.
Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani, the top of the presidential guards unit, declared himself Niger’s new ruler on 26 July after overthrowing him.
The West African regional bloc Ecowas has threatened army motion to reverse the coup, however it has thus far failed to observe via on its menace.
The coup leaders have warned they’ll defend themselves towards any intervention.
Ecowas has additionally imposed sanctions on the junta, together with slicing electrical energy to Niger. This has prompted blackouts within the capital Niamey, and different main cities.
On Saturday, a high-powered delegation of Muslim clerics from neighbouring Nigeria met junta leaders in Niamey in a bid to mediate an finish to the disaster.
Junta-appointed Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine mentioned he was optimistic that talks with Ecowas would happen within the coming days “to discuss how the sanctions against us will be lifted”.
The coup in Niger mirrored related takeovers in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali, amid an Islamist insurgency and a rising Russian affect within the wider Sahel area via its mercenary group Wagner.
Despite his captivity, Mr Bazoum was in a position to publish an article in The Washington Post stating that he was a hostage and that the coup would have “devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world”.
Mr Bazoum is reported to have misplaced a “worrying” quantity of weight, whereas his 20-year-old son, who has a power medical situation, was additionally reportedly denied care.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk described the situations of the detention as inhumane, degrading and in violation of worldwide human rights legislation.
His daughter Zazia, 34, who was on vacation in France through the coup, advised the UK-based Guardian newspaper final week that her father, mom and brother had no clear water or electrical energy and had been residing on rice and pasta.
Fresh meals was rotting within the fridge as a result of there was no energy, she mentioned.
Mr Bazoum has been seen as soon as since he was overthrown, in a photograph launched after he met Chad’s chief Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno.
Mr Déby met each the junta and Mr Bazoum quickly after the coup in a failed bid to resolve the disaster.