(MFWA/IFEX) – On 12 August 2004, Moussa Kaka, director of the independent radio station Saraounia FM and correspondent of Radio France International, was arrested by agents of the Gendarmerie in the capital, Niamey. Kaka was picked up at about 12:00 p.m. GMT at the station and is being held incommunicado. The security officers also searched […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 12 August 2004, Moussa Kaka, director of the independent radio station Saraounia FM and correspondent of Radio France International, was arrested by agents of the Gendarmerie in the capital, Niamey. Kaka was picked up at about 12:00 p.m. GMT at the station and is being held incommunicado.
The security officers also searched Kaka’s office and home, confiscating address books and other documents.
According to MFWA sources in Niger, Kaka was arrested after Saraounia FM broadcast a telephone interview with the head of a new rebel movement in its 11 August afternoon news bulletin. The group had claimed responsibility for armed attacks in the north of the country.
On 10 August, on the evening before the broadcast, armed men had attacked three transport buses between Agadez and Arlit, 1,100 km north of Niamey. The armed men killed three of the passengers, seriously injured 14 others and took hostage two gendarmes accompanying the transport buses.