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Niger junta arrests senior politicians after coup, debt issue cancelled

31 July 2023 20:00 (UTC +04:00)

The military junta that seized power in Niger detained three more senior politicians from the ousted government on Monday, their party said, widening arrests in defiance of international calls to restore democratic rule, APA reports citing Reuters.

As turmoil from the takeover spread from the streets to the markets, sources said the regional central bank had cancelled Niger's planned 30 billion CFA ($51 million) bond issuance, scheduled for Monday in the West African regional debt market, following sanctions.

The African Union, the U.N., the European Union and other powers have condemned the junta's overthrow of elected president Mohamed Bazoum last week - the seventh military takeover in less than three years in West and Central Africa.

The coup has raised fears for the security of the surrounding Sahel region. The United States, former colonial power France and other Western states have troops in Niger and had been working with the government battling militant forces linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda.

Western concern over the coup is also sharpened by Niger's position as the world's seventh-biggest producer of uranium, the radioactive metal widely used for nuclear energy and treating cancer.

Junta forces arrested the ousted government's mines minister, the head of the ruling party, and oil minister Mahamane Sani Mahamadou, who is also the son of former president Issoufou Mahamadou, the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS-Tarayya) said.

The interior minister, transport minister, and a deputy had already been detained, it added.

The arrests confirm the "repressive and dictatorial" nature of the coup leaders, the party said in a statement, calling on citizens to come together to protect democracy.

The arrests were announced a day after Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby arrived in Niger to try to mediate between the coup leaders and the ousted government.

Late on Sunday he posted what appeared to be the first images of Bazoum since the takeover, showing him smiling and apparently unharmed. Deby said he was trying to "to find a peaceful solution," without going into further detail.