Niger's military rulers said they had foiled an attempt by Mohamed Bazoum, the former president they ousted in a coup in July, to escape their custody on Thursday, October 19. "At around three in the morning, the ousted president Mohamed Bazoum and his family, his two cooks and two security elements, tried to escape from his place of detention," the regime's spokesman Amadou Abdramane said on state television.
The escape bid failed and "the main actors and some of the accomplices" had been arrested, he added, in the broadcast late Thursday. The escape plan had involved Bazoum at first getting to a hideout on the outskirts of the capital Niamey, said Abdramane.
They had then planned to fly out on helicopters "belonging to a foreign power" towards Nigeria, he added, denouncing Bazoum's "irresponsible attitude".
Since he was toppled by the military on July 26, Bazoum has refused to resign. Until now, he has been held at his residence in the heart of the presidential palace along with his wife Haziza and son Salem. Abdramane did not say where they were now being held.
In September Bazoum's lawyer said he filed a legal case with a court of the Economic Community of West African States against those who deposed him. They also said they were taking his case to the UN Human Rights Council.
The army officers who overthrew Bazoum cited as justification the deteriorating security situation in the country because of jihadist attacks.
Niger is battling two jihadist insurgencies: a spillover in its southeast from a long-running conflict in neighbouring Nigeria; and an offensive in the west by militants crossing from Mali and Burkina Faso. At the start of the month, Niger held three days of national mourning after 29 soldiers were killed in a suspected jihadist attack, the deadliest since the military took power in July.