Niger magistrates called for a strike on Friday after the military government dissolved judicial unions and dismissed one of their members.

The junta, which seized power in the west African country in a July 2023 coup, last week dissolved five judicial unions, saying they “do not work for the proper functioning of the public justice service”.

On Thursday, the secretary general of the powerful SAMAN magistrates’ union, which was among the five dissolved organisations, Abdoul-Nasser Bagna Abdourahamane, was removed from the judiciary by decree.

No official reason was given for the decision, which his union called an “unprecedented authoritarian drift” and declared a strike.

It has also filed appeals against its dissolution.
Lawyers had already announced a two-day strike on Thursday and Friday in protest against the unions’ dissolution, accusing the junta of threatening the independence of the justice system.

In April, the junta dissolved three other unions, one for customs officials and two for workers in the water and forestry sector.

Those unions’ workers are among the officers drafted to help fight an insurgency in the Sahel nation by jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, who have regularly carried out attacks for more than a decade.