Niger: the double silence at the heart of power

Two absences. Two silences. And one question that is becoming impossible to ignore: what is really happening at the highest level of the Nigerien state?

Since 31 August, Moussa Kaka has not been seen or heard from publicly. A well-known figure in the Nigerien press and a correspondent for international media outlets, he is said to have left the premises of Radio-télévision Saraounia (RTS) in Niamey before becoming virtually invisible.

The timing is striking. His disappearance came only days after the mutiny that occurred in the capital. No direct link between the two events has been established at this stage. Yet in a country where information about movements within the security apparatus has become particularly difficult to verify, such temporal proximity inevitably raises questions.

Where is Moussa Kaka? Is he being held? By which service? For what reasons? And why does no clear official communication put an end to the speculation?

These are simple questions. Yet they remain unanswered.

A journalist vanishes in an already tense Niger

Concern now extends well beyond the journalist’s inner circle. Human rights and press freedom organisations are calling on the Nigerien authorities to clarify his situation.

The stakes are considerable. Since the July 2023 coup, the Nigerien media landscape has gradually closed. The transitional authorities have tightened their control over the public sphere in the name of sovereignty, national security and the fight against foreign influence.

But that logic reaches its limits when silence becomes the only response.

A military transition can invoke security. It cannot turn uncertainty into a rule of governance.

If Moussa Kaka is being held, the authorities must be able to explain why. If he is not, they must allow it to be understood where he is. In either case, prolonged silence feeds suspicion more than it protects the state.

And meanwhile, Tiani remains out of sight

The other element drawing attention is the public absence of General Abdourahamane Tiani.

Since the mutiny in Niamey in late August, the head of the regime is not known to have made any public appearance. Again, this absence alone does not permit the conclusion that the leadership has lost control.

But it comes at a particularly sensitive moment.

After a mutiny, when questions circulate about the state of the chain of command and several changes are said to have affected the military apparatus, the prolonged absence of the principal leader necessarily becomes a political issue.

Is Tiani still directly running the country? Are decisions being taken under his effective authority? Or does power now operate through a narrower circle of military and security officials?

For now, no sufficiently solid public information allows a definitive answer.

And that is precisely the problem.

Power in the fog

In a democracy, a lack of communication can already be worrying. In a military regime born of a coup and confronted with internal tensions, it carries far heavier consequences.

For when the leader stays silent, journalists disappear from the public space and information about movements within the security apparatus becomes hard to verify, one question inevitably emerges: who really controls the state machine?

The Moussa Kaka case could then become more than a press freedom matter. It could be the revealer of a system in which information has become a strategic variable of power.

Does silence protect the regime, or does it seek to mask its fragilities?

What is known… and what is not

For the moment, several facts must be distinguished from speculation.

Moussa Kaka has been publicly missing since 31 August. His fate remains to be clarified. Organisations are demanding explanations from the authorities.

Tiani, for his part, has not been publicly visible since the events of late August, according to the information available. This does not mean he has lost power, nor that he has been sidelined from decisions.

But one thing is certain: the lack of verifiable information leaves a vacuum that rumours immediately fill.

And in today’s Niger, that vacuum is becoming politically dangerous.

For behind the question “where is Moussa Kaka?”, another, even more sensitive question is beginning to appear:

“Where does Nigerien power really lie since the mutiny?”

As long as Niamey does not answer these two questions clearly, doubt will continue to take hold.