Biden calls for immediate release of ousted Niger president Bazoum

By : AFP

Date: 3 August 2023 10:46am WAT

(FILES) US President Joe Biden gestures as he speaks during the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference at the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 1, 2023. - President Joe Biden announced on April 25, 2023 he is running for re-election in 2024, plunging at the record age of 80 into a ferocious new White House campaign "to finish the job." (Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP)

Protesters hold a Russian flag and a banner with images of (from L to R): General Abdourahamane Tiani, Nigers new strongman, Burkina Faso’s junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore, leader of Mali’s junta, Assimi Goita, and Guinea’s junta leader, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, during a demonstration on independence day in Niamey on August 3, 2023. – Security concerns built on August 3, 2023 ahead of planned protests in coup-hit Niger, with France demanding safety guarantees for foreign embassies as some Western nations reduced their diplomatic presence. (Photo by – / AFP)

US President Joe Biden called on Thursday for the immediate release of Niger’s elected President Mohamed Bazoum and for the country’s democracy to be preserved.
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“I call for President Bazoum and his family to be immediately released, and for the preservation of Niger’s hard-earned democracy,” Biden said in a statement Thursday, the 63rd anniversary of Niger’s independence.

“In this critical moment, the United States stands with the people of Niger to honor our decades-long partnership rooted in shared democratic values and support for civilian-led governance,” he said.

Bazoum, 63, was ousted a week ago by his own guard in a coup condemned by the United States, European nations and the United Nations.
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“The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders,” Biden said. “They have expressed their will through free and fair elections — and that must be respected.”

Bazoum was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger’s first peaceful transition of power.

He took the helm of a country burdened by four previous coups since independence from France in 1960.

The clock is ticking on a demand made Sunday by West African regional bloc ECOWAS for the coup leaders to restore Bazoum to power within a week or face the possible “last resort” of military intervention.
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