The journalist who disappeared from view

Since 31 August, Moussa Kaka has not been publicly seen. 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 practically invisible.

The timing is striking. His disappearance occurred only days after the mutiny that took place 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, this temporal proximity inevitably raises questions.

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

These are simple questions. Yet they remain unanswered.

A disappearance in an already tense Niger

Concern now extends beyond the journalist’s immediate 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 contracted. The transitional authorities have tightened their control over public space in the name of sovereignty, national security and the fight against foreign influence.

But this 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 detained, 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.

The general who 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.

Does Tiani still directly lead the country? Are decisions 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 facing internal tensions, it becomes far heavier in consequence.

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

The Moussa Kaka case could then become more than a press freedom issue. It could reveal a system in which information has become a strategic variable of power.

Does silence protect the regime or 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 unaccounted for 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 available information. This does not mean he has lost power, nor that he is excluded 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.

By Maimouna Kaboré — Editor-in-Chief