NIGER’S military leaders have refused to release the family of the detained president in a proposed goodwill gesture, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday.

Fears have been mounting for the health of president Mohamed Bazoum as well as his wife and 20-year-old son since the military seized power and took them captive on July 26.

In a phone call with Niger’s former president Mahamadou Issoufou, a fellow Western ally whom Bazoum served, Blinken “expressed his grave concern at the continued unlawful detention under deteriorating conditions of president Bazoum and his family.”

Blinken “shared that he is particularly dismayed by the refusal of those who seized power in Niger to release Bazoum’s family members as a demonstration of goodwill,” a State Department statement said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that Bazoum and his family have been deprived of food, electricity and medical care for several days.

UN rights chief Volker Turk said Bazoum’s reported detention conditions “could amount to inhuman and degrading treatment, in violation of international human rights law.” – AFP, August 12, 2023.