African Union wants Niger President freed The African Union wants Niger’s military junta to free President Mamadou Tandja, overthrown in a February 18 coup, the body’s peace and security chief Ramtane Lamamra said Thursday.
"It’s a constant source of preoccupation for the AU... it’s both a moral and a political obligation," Lamamra said after an AU Peace and Security Council meeting.
"We’ve had guarantees that a qualified representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross was going to be allowed to visit him and I think I’m in a position to say that has already happened," he said, adding that a long period of detention seems unlikely.
The junta has not yet set the length of the transition that started when it overthrew Tandja on February 18.
Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Badjo Gamatie and four of his colleagues detained after the coup were freed at the start of the month.
The junta, which appointed Major Salou Djibo as new head of state and set up a transitional regime to work towards elections, said recently that Tandja, 71, was being detained "for security reasons" in a presidential building where he is allowed access to his doctor.
The junta, which has constituted a cabinet, has promised a short transition and a rapid return to civil rule.
"The Peace and Security Council has reaffirmed it wants a short transition that should not last more than six months," Lamamra said.
Asked whether the junta is likely to keep its word, he said: "An officer can be expected to keep his word but moreover their first actions have been to say loud and clear that they don’t intend to drag out the transition period..."
"Our feeling is that this group of Niger army officers is a group that should be able to keep its word."
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