Moussa Kaka, director-general of Radio Télévision Saraounia and a former correspondent for Radio France Internationale, left his office in Niamey on the evening of August 31 and did not return. Three days later, his family and colleagues said they had been unable to find any information about his whereabouts.
In October 2025, Niamey police arrested Kaka and five other journalists—Abdoul Aziz Idé, Ibro Chaibou, Souleymane Brah, Youssouf Seriba and Oumarou Kané—after they announced a news briefing about a government-created solidarity fund for state security operations. The authorities charged them with "complicity in distributing documents likely to disturb public order" under the cybercrime law. By August 28, all had been released on bail or unconditionally.
Kaka's disappearance came two days after an attempted coup against Niger's military junta on August 29, when mutinous soldiers attacked strategic locations in Niamey. The army, backed by Russian government-controlled Africa Corps forces, retook control on August 30. The authorities have since detained soldiers alleged to have participated in the uprising and one former minister.
One Nigerien journalist said that in Niger, "one could disappear because of his or her opinions," and described Kaka's disappearance as following the same pattern as other vanishings of junta critics. Under international human rights law, an enforced disappearance occurs when state forces hold someone and authorities refuse to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or conceal their whereabouts.
Since seizing power in a 2023 coup, Niger's junta has dissolved political parties, suspended civil society groups, and detained journalists under its cybercrime law. The military authorities have also detained former President Mohamed Bazoum and human rights defender Moussa Tchangari, and announced Niger's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.
