Held captive by means of his former safety guards in an sovereign wing of his area, the deposed president of Niger paces a bed room without a direct sunlight, snip off from the arena and not able to speak to his attorneys, in step with crowd with direct wisdom of the situations of his detention.

9 months since he was once toppled in some of the coups that experience just lately wracked West Africa, Mohamed Bazoum is lingering in detention without a lead to visible. The army junta that deposed him is looking for to strip him of presidential immunity, paving the best way for him to be prosecuted on fees corresponding to treason, for which the penalty may well be week imprisonment, his attorneys mentioned.

Trapped together with his spouse, Hadiza, and two home staff, he has negative get admission to to a telephone and isn’t allowed to look his attorneys, alternative people individuals or pals, in step with individuals of his inside circle who spoke at the situation of anonymity on account of the precariousness of the condition. His best customer is a health care provider, who brings him meals as soon as a generation.

The once-loud requires his reduce have grown calm. Lots of Mr. Bazoum’s closest allies — his cupboard individuals and advisers — had been thrown into prison or pressured to escape Niger.

And a few of Mr. Bazoum’s closest global companions are backing away. On the call for of the governing junta, the US is getting ready to take back about 1,000 troops stationed at an wind bottom within the nation’s barren region. France, an established spouse within the combat towards extremist teams affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic Order, departed in December.

Rather, about 100 Russian army instructors arrived within the capital, Niamey, in April as Niger’s pristine leaders grew to become to Moscow for safety help.

“Little by little, this man is forgotten in all of these geopolitical moves,” mentioned Reed Brody, a important human rights attorney representing Mr. Bazoum.

The army leaders who took over in Niger accused him of failing to reserve the rustic from the Islamist insurgents, however maximum analysts say political rivalries had been the actual purpose and that Niger was once doing higher than its neighbors at retaining armed insurgents at bay.

As squaddies have seized energy in different West and Central African nations within the generation 4 years, they have got curtailed particular person freedoms, behind schedule a go back to civilian rule and persecuted combatants, together with the presidents they as soon as served and next ousted.

However Mr. Bazoum’s ordeal sticks out. He has been got rid of from energy however residue on the middle of it, as Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, the senior army respectable who toppled him and now governs Niger, helps to keep him detained just a few hundred toes from his workplace, within the presidential compound.

“Tchiani’s power lies in part on Bazoum’s detention,” mentioned Amadou Ange Chekaraou Barou, a related aider to Mr. Bazoum. “Bazoum is like a shield to him.”

The army executive in Niger didn’t reply to a number of demands of remark.

Mr. Bazoum, 64, has refused to surrender, however global companions now discuss of him as a former chief. A spokesman for the Order Segment mentioned in April, “We continue to call for the release of former President Bazoum and those unjustly detained as part of the military coup in July 2023.”

On Would possibly 10, he’s scheduled for a listening to that might strip his presidential immunity, his attorneys say. This would govern to his prosecution on fees like treason, over an accusation that he attempted to resignation in October; supporting terrorism, for announcing in an interview era president that the Islamist militants had higher wisdom of the battlefield than the army; and plotting towards the condition’s protection, as he’s accused of asking international powers to independent him in a while next the coup.

Moussa Coulibaly, a attorney representing Mr. Bazoum in hearings in Niamey, refused to mention whether or not the previous president had attempted to resignation, and he accused the junta of seeking to put together an unlawful detention seem professional.

All over his first months of captivity, Mr. Bazoum was once held together with his spouse; their 22-year-old son, Salem; and two home staff within the presidential place of dwelling. That they had negative electrical energy however had been in a position to roam within the home as guards and others perched on armed pickup vans surrounded it.

But the home quickly changed into a giant oven, a member of Mr. Bazoum’s related circle mentioned. Temperatures that reached 105 levels Fahrenheit out of doors made the captives’ pores and skin peel, the individual mentioned. Ms. Bazoum additionally suffered from a major episode of malaria.

Next the junta accused Mr. Bazoum of seeking to resignation in October, it curtailed his motion even additional, trapping him, his people and his home staff right into a wing of the place of dwelling. Infantrymen at the moment are stationed within and feature got rid of keys from the doorways throughout the place of dwelling, in order that Mr. Bazoum can’t lock them for privateness. There may be electrical energy, however squaddies confiscated all phones, in step with the ones interviewed in his inside circle.

Mr. Bazoum spends his days exercising on an indoor motorcycle and studying Marxist idea, Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” His kinfolk and closest advisers had was hoping that he could be spared for Christmas or for Eid al-Fitr in April. His son was once spared this yr.

However, as the previous president residue stranded in a bed room as soon as old by means of one among his kids, they are saying that his upcoming travel could be to prison.

“Prison has always been something he has taken into account in his political career,” a member of Mr. Bazoum’s related circle mentioned.

A onetime highschool philosophy mentor, Mr. Bazoum was once elected president of Niger in 2021 and briefly made the rustic some of the appreciated recipients of international help in West Africa. He tackled corruption and vowed to ship extra ladies to college, partially to restrict early pregnancies in a rustic with the arena’s best possible birthrate. He labored intently with China to create an oil pipeline this is Africa’s longest, which the junta inaugurated this yr.

He sought assistance from the US and Ecu nations in preventing off extremist teams and purchased drones from Turkey, but additionally negotiated with the militants in semisecrecy.

He welcomed to the capital the U.S. secretary of condition, Antony J. Blinken, and the U.N. secretary common, António Guterres. Ecu emissaries just like the Prince of Denmark and Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, additionally visited.

“Bazoum was seen as the best of all partners, and Western leaders were attached to him,” mentioned Jean-Hervé Jézéquel, the Global Emergency Crew’s venture director for the Sahel area, which contains Niger. However “so far, that popularity hasn’t borne fruit” in securing Mr. Bazoum’s reduce, he mentioned.

For months, the US and Ecu nations remained divided over the most productive option to download his reduce from Niger’s junta and to inspire a go back to civilian rule, in step with 3 senior Western officers running on Niger. France driven for an army intervention; the US resisted the theory.

Now, Niger has kicked out each nations and taken Russia in.

Mr. Barou, the senior aider to Mr. Bazoum, mentioned there was once modest to wish for his democracy from the stream junta. “In the history of Niger,” he mentioned, “detained presidents were never released until the soldiers who deposed them got evicted.”