Niger's president Mohamed Bazoum has spent 550 days as a hostage of the military junta in the capital, Niamey. His lawyers say that his detention is setting a dangerous precedent and have launched a global campaign to have him released.

More than 1,000 people from some 70 countries have signed a petition demanding his release from house arrest since its launch on Monday, 20 January. A half-dozen current and former heads of state and government from Africa and beyond have written their own letters. And a lobbyist from the United States is working to bring Bazoum’s family to Washington soon for meetings with the Donald Trump White House, the State Department, Congress and think-tanks.

Attacks that killed dozens of civilians and soldiers in Niger this month have put a spotlight on the military’s failure to restore security in the West African nation, nearly 18 months after staging a coup.

Kiari Liman-Tinguiri, Niger’s former ambassador to the United States, is among several notable international personalities who are continuing the calls on the West African nation’s governing junta to release ousted President Mohamed Bazoum who has spent over 514 days in detention at the presidential palace. For more, Liman-Tinguiri visited VOA where he sat down with reporter Peter Clottey.

For 500 days, unelected leaders have ruled over a once hopeful country by fiat with no timetable for elections. They have trampled on basic freedoms and imprisoned hundreds of citizens – chief among them, the elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, who, in 2021, completed the first peaceful handover of power in Niger’s history.

In an op-ed for Le Monde, Nobel Prize winners such as Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, as well as intellectuals and law experts, call for the release of Niger's president, who has been detained since July 2023 by the junta that overthrew him.

Crackdown on Opposition, Media; No Oversight of Military Spending

Nearly three weeks ago, Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani betrayed Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum and attempted to seize power in the West African country of 25 million. The coup leaders are now trying to starve Mr. Bazoum to death while holding him hostage. The world faces a critical choice: help Niger restore its democracy, or deal with the consequences of it becoming an autocratic failed state. The decisions made at this grave hour will affect global security for generations to come.

Nine months after a coup in Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, an ally of France and the U.S., remains locked in the presidential residence, cut off from contact with anyone but his doctor.

Renversé par la junte il y a neuf mois, le chef de l’État nigérien élu est retenu prisonnier avec son épouse dans deux pièces de la résidence présidentielle. Ses proches redoutent que la communauté internationale les abandonne à leur sort.

Renversé depuis le 26 juillet par un coup d'État militaire, le président nigérien est depuis retenu dans sa résidence présidentielle à Niamey. Nous sommes - depuis Abidjan - avec Maître Florence Loan-Messan, l'avocate du Comité du président Mohamed Bazoum, Bâtonnière-dauphin de Côte d'Ivoire.

I write this as a hostage. Niger is under attack from a military junta that is trying to overthrow our democracy, and I am just one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned. This coup, launched against my government by a faction in the military on July 26, has no justification whatsoever. If it succeeds, it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world.

Members of Niger’s presidential guard detained democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, declaring that they have seized control of the government and suspended the constitution of this country of 25 million people.