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The whole country must be mobilized, according to a statement by the PNDS-Tarayya party on Wednesday. Bazoum and his family were being held at their residence in inhumane conditions. There is no running water and no electricity. In addition, the President would be denied medical care and fresh food.
A former rebel leader had previously called for resistance to the military government. Rhissa Ag Boula launched a movement on Wednesday against the junta that came to power in a coup on July 26. The Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR) is seeking the reinstatement of ousted President Bazoum, who has been under house arrest at his residence since taking power.
USA: “We are extremely concerned”
The US government, meanwhile, has expressed concern over the health of Nigerian President Bazoum, who was ousted by the military. “We are extremely concerned about his health and his safety and the safety of his family,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Wednesday after Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Bazoum.
Miller declined to give any further details. But he said concern for Bazoum’s health was one of the reasons Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland made an unannounced visit to Niger earlier in the week and failed to meet the ousted president. “As time passes and he is being held in isolation, this is a situation of increasing concern to us,” Miller said.
Detained without water and electricity
Bazoum was overthrown by the military on July 26 and the armed forces took power. Niger’s Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou recently said the 63-year-old was being held with his wife and son without water or electricity. Bazoum was the first head of state in Niger, which had been independent since the end of French colonial rule in 1960, to come into office through a peaceful transfer of power.
The states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will discuss the situation after the coup d’état in Niger at a special summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Thursday. ECOWAS had asked the Nigerien military to reinstate Bazoum by last Sunday evening and held out the prospect of military intervention as a “last option”. The deadline passed without a military operation taking place.
Source: Nachrichten
