Niger accepted a mediation proposal from Algeria with a view to a political solution to the crisis, after the coup d’état of July 26, when soldiers overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum, who will file a complaint in Niamey against the perpetrators of the putsch.
“The Algerian government has received, through the Nigerien Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an acceptance of Algerian mediation aimed at promoting a political solution to the crisis in Niger,” the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release on Monday.
The Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, instructed the head of diplomacy, Ahmed Attaf, “to go to Niamey as soon as possible to begin discussions there […] with all stakeholders,” according to the same source.
The military regime in Niamey had not reacted to this information on Monday afternoon.
Algiers, an influential neighbor of Niger, had proposed at the end of August political discussions “for a maximum of six months” under the supervision of a “civil authority led by a consensual personality and accepted by all sides of the political class”, in order to lead to the “reestablishment of constitutional order in the country”.
On August 19, the country’s new strongman, General Abdourahamane Tiani, indicated that he wanted a transition of three years maximum. And on Saturday evening, in an interview on national television, he affirmed that the regime had “no right to spend five years in power”.
Algiers estimated Monday that “the acceptance of the Algerian initiative reinforces the option of a political solution to this crisis.”
Complaint by Mohamed Bazoum
Niger is governed by a military regime that came to power after a July 26 coup that overthrew elected president Mohamed Bazoum.
Since this putsch, the deposed head of state has been sequestered in his presidential residence with his wife and son.
On Monday, lawyers for Mohamed Bazoum announced the filing of a complaint in Niamey against the perpetrators of the coup.
This complaint, with the constitution of a civil party, consulted Monday by AFP, targets General Tiani and “all others”, for “attack and conspiracy against the authority of the State, crimes and offenses committed by civil servants and arrests and arbitrary confinements”.
The complaint, on behalf of Mr. Bazoum, his wife and two of their children, should be filed “in the coming days” with the senior investigating judge at the Niamey high court, according to one of the lawyers. interviewed by AFP, Dominique Inchauspé.
Mr. Bazoum also contacted the working group on arbitrary detention and the Human Rights Committee, two bodies of the UN Human Rights Council, these lawyers indicated.
On September 18, he appealed to the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), denouncing in particular his “arbitrary arrest”.
On Monday, an international collective of lawyers, including the American lawyer specializing in human rights Reed Brody, the former president of Niger Moussa Coulibaly and Mohamed Seydou Diagne of the Dakar bar, called for “the immediate release” of Mr. .Bazoum.
The deposed president and his family “were never presented to a magistrate and were not informed of the existence of any procedure against them”, declared the collective in a press release.
In mid-August, the perpetrators of the putsch for their part announced their intention to prosecute Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason” and “endangering the security” of the country.
Since the coup d’état, ECOWAS has threatened Niger with armed intervention to restore constitutional order, but Algerian President Tebboune had made it known on August 6 that he “categorically refused any military intervention” from outside Niger which would represent , according to him, “a direct threat to Algeria”.
The Nigerien military regime has also had very tense relations with France since the coup.
On September 24, French President Emmanuel Macron, who refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the regime, announced the withdrawal of 1,500 French soldiers from Niger by the end of the year while Ambassador Sylvain Itté left Niamey on Wednesday. , two demands of the military in power.