Niger 's authorities should urgently disclose the whereabouts of the prominent journalist Moussa Kaka, who was forcibly disappeared two months ago, Human Rights Watch said today. They should ensure his safety and release him unless he has been charged with a valid criminal offense.
On August 31, 2026, Kaka, the director-general of Radio Télévision Saraounia and a former correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI), left his office in Niamey, the capital, to return home but never arrived, raising immediate concerns. For weeks, his family and colleagues were not able to obtain information about his whereabouts. On September 25, during Niger's Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations in Geneva, Justice Minister Alio Daouda acknowledged that Kaka was being detained. The minister said Kaka was being held for an alleged "offense" and would "answer before the courts," but provided no details about the accusation or his place of detention.
"Two months after Moussa Kaka vanished in Niger, the authorities have yet to provide his location or explain his detention," said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Kaka's family will continue to grapple with the uncertainty until the authorities resolve his disappearance."
Kaka is a respected figure in African investigative journalism. For years, he reported for RFI in Niger, until the military junta suspended its broadcasts in 2023. Throughout his career, he has continued his work under successive governments despite the risks and repeated detentions for his journalism.
In September 2007, under then-President Mamadou Tandja, the authorities arrested Kaka and accused him of links to ethnic Tuareg rebels, following his extended coverage of the Tuareg rebellion in northern Niger. He spent 379 days in prison before being released in October 2008 following a sustained national and international campaign for his freedom.
In October 2025, police in Niamey arrested Kaka along with five other journalists after they announced on social media a press briefing about a government-created solidarity fund intended to support the country's security forces. The journalists were charged with "complicity in distributing documents likely to disturb public order" under Niger's broad cybercrime law. All six were subsequently released.
Kaka's recent forced disappearance came amid heightened political tensions following an attempted military coup in Niamey on August 29. After mutinous soldiers attempted to seize power, the junta arrested dozens of suspected soldiers and a former minister. Russian government-controlled Africa Corps forces were called upon to help suppress the mutiny. Kaka's colleagues and friends have expressed concern that his disappearance may be linked to the junta's crackdown after the attempted coup.
Reporters Without Borders has referred Kaka's case to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, following an earlier referral to the African Union's special rapporteur on freedom of expression and access to information. African civil society organizations raised his case at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in mid-October in Dakar, Senegal. Journalists and human rights activists across Africa have also called for his release.
"Moussa Kaka's place is not in detention," said Alioune Tine, a prominent Senegalese human rights defender and former UN rights expert. "His detention is absolutely unjustified and violates Niger's international human rights obligations, including provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which Niger has signed and ratified."
Kaka's case highlights growing concerns about media freedom and political repression in Niger, Human Rights Watch said. Since seizing power in a 2023 coup, Niger's military junta has solidified its rule, dismantled democratic institutions, and intensified repression of dissidents. They have dissolved political parties, suspended dozens of civil society organizations, detained journalists under a broad cybercrime law, stripped exiled political opponents of their nationality, announced the country's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, and extended the political transition without holding elections. The authorities also continue to arbitrarily detain former President Mohamed Bazoum and his wife, and a prominent human rights defender, Moussa Tiangari.
Under international human rights law, an enforced disappearance occurs when state agents, or people acting with the state's authorization, support, or acquiescence, deprive someone of their liberty and then refuse to acknowledge the detention or conceal the person's fate or whereabouts. Enforced disappearance places victims at heightened risk of torture and extrajudicial execution. It also inflicts profound suffering on families, who are left uncertain whether their loved ones are alive or dead and denied access to justice.
"Niger's authorities should immediately account for Kaka and free him if he hasn't been fairly charged," Allegrozzi said. "Governments and international organizations should press the junta to take immediate action in Kaka's case."
