Dozens of politicians, including deposed president Mohamed Bazoum, were arbitrarily detained. Rights to information and freedom of expression were routinely violated. Armed groups and army forces continued to commit abuses against civilians. Women and girls continued to be victims of the practice of wahaya and early marriage. Migrants, including a three-year-old girl, died of exhaustion after being forcibly expelled from Algeria. The authorities took measures to improve people’s right to health, but did not take preventive measures to respond to climate-induced severe flooding.
Background
The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, which came to power in a coup in July 2023, dissolved all elected municipal and regional councils and replaced them with military administrators. ECOWAS sanctions against Niger, including border closure, and economic and financial sanctions, were lifted in February. A month earlier, Niger had announced its intention to leave ECOWAS in a joint declaration with Mali and Burkina Faso.
Two rebel groups emerged in 2024: the Patriotic Front for Justice, and the Patriotic Front for Liberation, both of which launched attacks against oil infrastructure.
US and German troops left Niger after a 10-year presence.
Arbitrary detention
Several people who criticized the authorities were arbitrarily detained.
In January, Ibrahim Yacouba, a former energy minister, was arrested at the airport on his return to Niger. He was accused of “plotting against state security” and detained in Ouallam prison. In July a court ordered his provisional release but as of the end of the year the ruling had not been implemented by the Niger authorities.
In April the Niger authorities initiated the procedure to lift the immunity of deposed and detained president Mohamed Bazoum to prosecute him for “high treason”, as announced in August 2023. Mohamed Bazoum was refused access to his lawyers and to information on the charges against him.1 In June a state court lifted his immunity. Mohamed Bazoum’s spouse also remained arbitrarily detained at the presidential palace at the end of the year.
In April a high court in the capital, Niamey, ruled that the detention of Abdourahmane Ben Hameye and Mohamed Mbarek – both security officials and relatives of the former president – and 25 other individuals, including civilians, accused of a conspiracy to free Mohamed Bazoum and his family, was illegal and ordered their release. Two days after the ruling, they were all brought before a judge and charged with “plotting against the safety of the state or against state authority.” The civilians were provisionally released.
On 13 April, Ousmane Toudou, a journalist and former communications adviser to the presidency, was arrested by the gendarmerie. He was charged in May with “plotting against state security” and put in pretrial detention in Kollo prison. In the days following the July 2023 coup, Ousmane Toudou denounced the military takeover on social media.
On 26 April, security forces arrested Ali Marounfa, a civil society activist better known as “Ali Tera”, following an interview he did with BBC Hausa, in which said that the security situation in Tillabéri region was deteriorating.
In June, the politician Intinicar Alassane was arrested and charged with “disseminating data likely to disturb public order and human dignity” after he conducted a video interview with victims of an armed attack in the Tillabéri region, denouncing the resurgence in violence against civilians. He was sentenced on 9 July to one year in prison and a XOF 5 million (USD 8,300) fine.
Freedom of expression
On 29 January, the minister of home affairs suspended the activities of the Maison de la Presse, an independent media organization encompassing various press associations, and set up a new ad hoc management committee headed by the Interior Ministry’s secretary general.
On 24 April, security forces arrested Soumana Maiga, editor of L’Enquêteur, after the newspaper reported a story published by a French newspaper about the alleged installation of electronic interception devices by Russian agents on official state buildings.2 He was accused of “threatening national defence” and released pending trial on 9 July.
On 12 June, the Niger authorities revised the 2022 amendments to the 2019 Cybercrime law, and reinstated jail sentences for the offences of “dissemination, production and making available to others data that may disturb public order or threaten human dignity through an information system”, and defamation, reversing progress previously made on freedom of expression.
In August, the government created a national registry listing individuals and groups associated with terror acts or threats to national defence. Those on the registry risked being deprived of their nationality. At the end of the year, at least 21 Niger nationals were listed on the registry and temporarily stripped of their citizenship.
Unlawful attacks and killings
Armed groups
On 10 January, alleged members of the Islamic State-Sahel province (IS-Sahel) attacked the village of Tongo Tongo, Tillabéri region, and killed six civilians accused of collaborating with the Niger army. A few weeks later, they reportedly attacked the village of Motogatta, Tillabéri region and killed 22 civilians.
On 15 July, alleged members of IS-Sahel attacked the village of Kouregou, Tillabéri region and killed seven civilians and destroyed shops and other private property, according to humanitarian sources. Two days later, a Boko Haram faction abducted 10 civilians, including six women, in the village of Tourban Guida, Diffa region and took them to Nigeria.
Army forces
In January, a drone strike by the Niger army reportedly killed around 50 civilians in the village of Tiawa, Tillabéri region, in response to an attack by an armed group.
Women’s and girls’ rights
Women and girls continued to be subjected to harmful customary practices, laws and social norms despite a 2019 ruling by the Niger Supreme Court qualifying as illegal the practice of wahaya. This practice, in which girls from discriminated groups are forcibly married as “fifth wives”, persisted in rural communities. The marriage of girls before their 18th birthday was common – the legal age being 15 for girls, as opposed to 18 for boys.
Refugees’ and migrants’ rights
The expulsion of migrants from Algeria to the desert in northern Niger continued unabated. More than 20,000 migrants were expelled from Algeria to Assamaka, a town in the Agadez region of Niger between January and August, according to Alarm Phone Sahara.
Between 9 and 13 May, five men died on the route from “Point Zero” on the border with Algeria to the village of Assamaka, a walk of 15 km. Three further people, including a three-year-old girl, died at the health clinic in Assamaka, apparently of exhaustion.
Right to health
In August the government announced a 50% reduction in patients’ fees for medical treatments, laboratory tests, imaging and medical and surgical procedures. Fees for childbirth and dialysis were abolished in public hospitals.
Right to a healthy environment
Niger experienced exceptional rainfall and floods, which killed at least 339 individuals, according to official data. As of October, 1,176,528 people in 158,399 households were affected by severe floods, according to the government. However, there lacked plans to combat flooding, and construction continued along the Niger river, the area most prone to flooding.
