For nine days now, Mohamed Bazoum's life has been restricted to the perimeter walls of his presidential residence in Niger. In this one-story white villa, an alluring but modest home for an official building, the living conditions of the elected president, who has been held captive there along with his wife and their 22-year-old son since Wednesday, July 26, following a coup, are becoming more difficult by the day.
While neighboring Nigeria has begun applying the economic and financial sanctions decided on Sunday by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), cutting off its electricity supply which provides 70% of what Niger consumes, the putschists "have disconnected" the line supplying the presidential home, according to an adviser to Bazoum. New food supplies are no longer being delivered to the president, and "chains have been placed on the doors of the residence."
Bazoum, a great animal lover – he heads the Noé association, which fights to save endangered species and owns a number of species himself – can no longer enjoy the fresh air in the garden and look after his gazelles and a famous tortoise. It is said the latter has been living in the residence for 60 years, outliving four coups already.
In this residence on the banks of the Niger River, right in the heart of Niamey, Bazoum could almost hear the slogans praising the putschists of General Abdourahamane Tiani, the junta's self-proclaimed leader, and Russia, chanted by demonstrators on Thursday, August 3. A five-minute drive away, several thousand people gathered again in Place de la Concertation to support the junta and revile the former regime and its main ally in the fight against terrorism, France. Unlike Sunday, when protesters damaged the grounds of the French embassy, drawing the ire of Paris – and from which more than 650 nationals were evacuated – the demonstration took place peacefully. Nigerien police officers had secured the area.
The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) stepped up its stance to consolidate its power. On Thursday, it cut off the French public media, Radio France Internationale (RFI), and France 24, and increased the number of arrests of senior members of Bazoum's regime. Earlier this week, Foumakoye Gado, the president of the Niger Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS), the president’s party and a senior adviser, was arrested. Also arrested were the Minister of Mines Ousseini Hadizatou Yacouba and Oil Minister Mahamane Sani Mahamadou, the son of former Nigerien president Mahamadou Issoufou. Issoufou "is under house arrest," said one of his relatives. A large security operation was deployed around his house near the presidency, where arrested ministers have been transferred.
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