The military junta that took power in Niger in a coup last month has announced it will charge former President Mohamed Bazoum with high treason because of his interactions with foreign heads of state and international organizations.
Colonel Amadou Abdramane, a Junta spokesperson, said in a statement read on state TV late Sunday that the military authorities had “gathered the necessary evidence to prosecute the ousted president…for high treason and undermining Niger’s internal and external security.”
The coup leaders imprisoned Bazoum and dissolved the elected government, provoking outrage from world powers and West Africa’s regional grouping ECOWAS, which resolved last week to build a standby military force capable of intervening to restore Bazoum.
