In Niamey, the key figures from the regime overthrown by the July 26 coup have vanished into thin air. Many fled the capital and the banks of the Niger River in the days following General Abdourahamane Tiani's putsch. Those who remain say they are being hunted down by the junta, which is still holding President Mohamed Bazoum, his wife and their 22-year-old son hostage. Several Nigerien and diplomatic sources speak of a list of "targets," figures close to the overthrown authorities or members of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS), the political party in power before the pronunciamiento.
A form of psychosis has set in among the ranks of the former ruling party since the wave of arrests that followed the putsch. At least eight PNDS ministers, advisers and officials have already been arrested by the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, as the junta has called itself. They remain in custody somewhere in the capital. On Wednesday, August 9, the son of Aichatou Boulama Kané, Niger's ambassador to Paris, who was dismissed by the putschists, was arrested.
Le Monde was able to contact one of these officials from the deposed regime, who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Bazoum's detention conditions wore deteriorating. "He no longer has electricity, and the emergency generator has also been cut off," said the PNDS source. According to another member of Bazoum's entourage, the power cut came in response to the sanctions imposed on July 30 by ECOWAS, in an attempt to bring the junta to heel. The supplies tolerated by his jailers in the early days have since been cut off.
"He has no fresh food, only stocks of cereals and rice. He also has a stock of mineral water, which he is rationing in this barricaded house turned prison," said Rhissa Ag Boula, a former minister and adviser to presidents Mahamadou Issoufou and Bazoum. "But he'll hold out. He's a militant, who started his political fight on the high school benches. He's very well armed politically."
The former Tuareg rebel leader, who took part in the rebellions that rocked northern Niger in the early 1990s and 2000s, announced on Wednesday the creation of a Council of Resistance for the Republic, to call for the arrest of the leader of the putschists and the release of the president. For the time being, this call has gone unanswered.
President Bazoum himself reportedly told Human Rights Watch that he had had "no human contact" since August 4. "My son," he said, according to the statement issued by the human rights organization, "suffers from a serious heart condition and needs to see a doctor. They refused to let him undergo medical treatment."
In recent days, the African Union, the United Nations, the European Union and the United States have also expressed their concern at the deterioration in the daily life of the president and his family. "Nothing justifies such a treatment," denounced the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell.
If the junta doesn't bend, could Bazoum resign? "No, no, it's not possible. If there's no solution, he'll end up a martyr," said Ag Boula. "He's a warrior. He'll never give up. He'd rather die than resign," said the anonymous PNDS source, fearing that the elected president's life could be in danger in the event of ECOWAS military intervention. According to a French source, the putschists have threatened to kill him in the event of an operation.
As Bazoum is being held inside a palace guarded by hundreds of soldiers, it is impossible to independently verify the claims made by those close to him. However, the junta has never denied them.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.