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    Former Niger President Mohamed Bazoum attempts to flee the country, Military Junta says

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    Somali Magazine October 21, 2023-Mohamed Bazoum former president of Niger has tried to flee to France, this is according to military rulers.

    “At around 3:00 A.M the ousted president Mohamed Bazoum and his family, his two cooks and two security elements, tried to escape from his place of detention,” the regime’s spokesman Amadou Abdramane said on state television.

    Bzoum’s bid failed and “the main actors and some of the accomplices” were arrested, he added in the broadcast late Thursday.
    “The escape plan had involved Bazoum at first getting to a hideout on the outskirts of the capital Niamey,” said Abdramane.

    They had then planned to fly out on helicopters “belonging to a foreign power” towards Nigeria, he added, denouncing Bazoum’s “irresponsible attitude”.

    In July this year,Bazoum was ousted from power by military junta.
    Abdramane did not say where they were being held now.

    In September, Bazoum’s lawyers said he filed a legal case with a court of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) against those who deposed him.
    They also said they were taking his case to the UN Human Rights Council.

    The army officers who overthrew Bazoum cited as justification the deteriorating security situation in the country because of militia attacks.

    Niger is battling two militia insurgencies: a spillover in its southeast from a long-running conflict in neighbouring Nigeria; and an offensive in the west by militants crossing from Mali and Burkina Faso.

    At the start of the month, Niger held three days of national mourning after 29 soldiers were killed in a suspected militia attack, the deadliest since the military took power in July.
    This week the first group of French soldiers, ordered out of Niger by its post-coup military rulers, arrived by road in N’Djamena, the capital of neighbouring Chad.

    The convoy “has arrived without any particular problems” in N’Djamena after 10 days on the road and in coordination with Nigerien forces, army spokesman Pierre Gaudilliere told AFP.
    The troops will depart by air from Chad to France, with the pullout expected to be completed by the end of December.

    Roughly 1,400 soldiers were based in the capital Niamey and western Niger to battle fighters linked to the Islamic State group and Al Qaeda, bringing with them fighter jets, drones, helicopters and armoured vehicles, as well as the equipment to support them.
    France has supported ousted President Bazoum since the coup and is calling for his release, as are several other countries and organizations. But the military regime remains inflexible for now.

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