Niger: RSF appeals to UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances over fate of Moussa Kaka

Where is Moussa Kaka? For the past month, this question has been haunting journalists and human rights organisations across Africa and Europe. Given the silence of the Nigerien authorities on the matter, RSF submitted an appeal on 28 September to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, part of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The appeal follows several public calls by RSF and other organisations urging the country's authorities to take action. On 16 September, RSF also appealed to Ourveena Geereesha Topsy-Sonoo, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information for the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.

Moussa Kaka, who has been a journalist for 40 years, remains missing despite his relatives' efforts to search hospitals and police stations across Niamey, the country's capital, on the day after his disappearance on 31 August. The director of Radio Télévision Saraounia disappeared two days after a mutiny broke out at several military facilities in Niamey. After leaving his office in the Kalley Est neighbourhood, the former correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI) and RSF was supposed to return to his home in the Lossogoungou neighbourhood. He never arrived, and his personal vehicle has not been found.

On 29 September, the Group of Civil Society and Media Organisations (G25-Niger), whose members largely remain anonymous for security reasons, stated in a press release that, according to its investigation, Moussa Kaka had been followed by the "secret services" before his vehicle was "immobilised" and then "taken away" near the Gadafawa roundabout in Niamey. While RSF is unable to verify this information, it identified the Gadafawa roundabout in its appeal to the UN working group as being along Moussa Kaka's route.