Human rights NGOs that have recently published numerous critical reports highlighting rights violations and political repression in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are seen as a thorn in the side of military regimes in West Africa.
The critical reports on human rights are inconvenient for the junta leaders who claim that such reports discredit their countries and damage national security. For example, recent reports published by global human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) were slammed by Niger’s military junta for being one-sided and biased and thus discrediting the country. While some media have recently reported that the work of HRW and AI had been banned in Niger, both NGOs say that no official ban had yet been imposed on them.
At present, having no offices in Niger, both HRW and AI work together with local informants instead and and they don’t plan any change to this strategy in future. This does not come as a surprise as, since the coup d’eat in Niger in July 2023, the military government has already suspended around 200 local and international organizations for allegedly violating rules. “Those in power do not want to be informed about what is going on in their countries. They prefer to remain silent,” said Wada Mama, member of the Nigerian branch of Transparency International, an NGO that fights corruption worldwide. In neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, there have also been mounting accusations of critical voices being silenced, for example through arbitrary arrests.