Niger Activist Moussa Tchangari Detained Amid Growing Human Rights Concerns

The arrest and detention on December 3, 2024 of Moussa Tchangari, secretary general of the civil society organization Citizens’ Alternative Spaces (Alternatives Espaces Citoyens, AEC), in Niamey, Niger’s capital appears linked to a pervasive crackdown by the Nigerien authorities’ on the political opposition, media, and peaceful dissent since Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani took power in a military coup in July 2023.

“Moussa Tchangari doesn’t belong in prison, and neither do several other Nigeriens unjustly locked up by General Tiani’s government, including former President Mohamed Bazoum and his wife,” said Drissa Traoré, secretary general of the FIDH. “Niger’s authorities should immediately release Tchangari drop all the charges against him and stop targeting human rights defenders and activists.”

At about 7:30 p.m. on December 3, at least three gunmen in plain clothes, who claimed to be policemen, arrested Tchangari, 55, at his home in Niamey, and seized his phone, laptop and suitcase. “They violently broke into our home. My husband asked them if they had a warrant, but they replied that a warrant was not compulsory,” Tchangari’s wife, who witnessed the arrest, said. “They ordered him [Tchangari] to follow them quietly as they did not want anybody to know what was going on.”

Tchangari had previously expressed concerns with his colleagues and friends about the risk of arbitrary arrest and detention looming over many Nigeriens, especially those publicly criticizing the military authorities, including himself.

“Tchangari told me that Nigerien civil society actors were worried, carefully weighting their words and actions to be able to continue defending human rights, despite the constant risk of arrest,” said Isidore Ngueuleu, head of the Africa unit at the World Organisation Against Torture. “Tchangari has been serving as a role model for many human rights defenders and his arrest is intended to intimidate them.”

For nearly two days, Tchangari’s whereabouts remained unknown. On December 5 at about 4 p.m., lawyers finally located him at the Central Service for Combating Terrorism and Organized Transnational Crime (Service Central de Lutte contre le Terrorisme et de la Criminalité Transnationale Organisée SCLCT/CTO) in Niamey and spoke to him. Rabiou Mamane, one of the lawyers representing Tchangari, said that his client was taken “hooded” to the office of the intelligence services, “which is not an investigative unit under the authority of the general prosecutor,” before being transferred to the SCLCT/CTO. Mamane said that Tchangari had been charged with “advocacy of terrorism, undermining state security and criminal association in connection with terrorism”.

Tchangari recently criticized the November 12 decision by Niger’s interior minister to withdraw the licenses of two humanitarian non-governmental organizations, as well as the establishment on August 27 of a terrorism database.