APA – Niamey (Niger) – The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, is also calling for the Nigerien president to be reinstated as head of state.
Since 26 July, Mohamed Bazoum, the democratically elected President of Niger, has been detained by soldiers belonging to the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), who have decided to end the President’s term of office. Since then, he has been under house arrest and his conditions of detention are increasingly worrying.
“The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the deplorable conditions in which President Bazoum and his family are reportedly living as they continue to be arbitrarily detained by members of the Presidential Guard in Niger,” said the spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, in a note published on Wednesday evening to the
press.
According to several sources who spoke to Mr. Guterres, President Bazoum and his family have been living without electricity, water, food or medicine, and have been kept in solitary confinement since Friday.
“The Secretary-General reiterates his concern for the health and safety of the President and his family, and once again calls for his immediate and unconditional release and reinstatement as head of state,” the spokesman stressed.
According to the latter, the Secretary-General is also alarmed by persistent reports of the arrest of several members of the Government. He urgently calls for their unconditional release and for strict compliance with Niger’s international human rights obligations.
The UN is supporting the mediation efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to find a way out of the crisis in Niger after the military seized power on 26 July.
The community organization has convened a new meeting on the crisis in this Sahel country this Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria. This meeting follows an extraordinary summit held on 30 July, during which the regional organization issued a communiqué calling for the reinstatement of Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum. At the end of Thursday’s meeting, the community organization decided to use force to put an end to the military regime in Niamey.
The UN believes that the risk of the crisis spreading to the region is increasing and stresses the urgent need to ensure that vital humanitarian work continues unhindered.
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