Niger Junta Strips Five More Exiled Critics of Nationality, Including Former PM

Niger's junta leader Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani signed a decree on September 17, 2026, provisionally stripping the nationality of five prominent Nigeriens living in exile: former Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou, former presidential advisers Amadou dit Ange Barou Chekaraou, Oumarou Moussa Ibrahim, and Ousmane Abdoul Moumouni, and social media activist Boubacar Seyni Souley. The decree accuses them of disseminating information capable of disturbing public order, providing intelligence to foreign powers, electronic defamation, demoralizing the armed forces, and threatening state security, and derives its authority from a 2024 order creating a national terrorism database. Human Rights Watch, reporting the decree on September 22, said it brings to 25 the number of people provisionally stripped of Nigerien nationality under that order since 2024, and noted the action violates Niger's 1984 Nationality Code — which requires notification and a one-month defense period before deprivation — and creates a statelessness risk under conventions Niger has ratified. HRW senior Sahel researcher Ilaria Allegrozzi said nationality "is a fundamental legal status, not a privilege that governments can take from people for political reasons."