Niger’s ousted president reduced to eating dry rice as hopes for a peaceful resolution of the coup fade.
Mohamed Bazoum, the democratically elected president of Niger, said he is being kept isolated and forced to eat dry rice and pasta by the military junta who overthrew him and are refusing to cede power despite international pressure, CNN reports.
In a series of text messages to a friend, Bazoum said he has been “deprived of all human contact” since Friday, with no one supplying him food or medicine.
According to the texts, Bazoum added that he has also been living without electricity for a week – the result of a sanction from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
In the wake of the coup, Nigelec, Niger’s electricity company, announced that Nigeria’s government had cut supply to the neighbouring country, leading to blackouts in major cities.
The military junta in Niger had warned against foreign intervention in the country’s political situation, assuring that Bazoum’s wellbeing would be respected in exchange.
