Niger - November 2025

On 21 November, Niger’s Interior Ministry ordered hundreds of national and international NGOs to suspend activities for allegedly failing to publish their 2024 financial statements, authorising only around 100 of more than 4,000 organisations to continue operating. According to the authorities, only those organisations had complied with the requirement to publish their financial statements in the official gazette, while the rest were deemed non-compliant and given 60 days to regularise their status. Authorities said the move followed new oversight measures announced in January and forms part of efforts to monitor and supervise NGOs, which the junta has repeatedly accused of lacking transparency and even supporting jihadist groups. CIVICUS said the mass suspensions marked a new low for civic space and were intended to silence organisations defending human rights and good governance. The decision deepened a year-long tightening of state control over civil society, including prior bans and the creation of a new committee to align NGO programmes with government priorities.

Sources: Sahelian, West Africa Weekly, Jeune Afrique, CIVICUS, Barron’s

On 1 November, six journalists in Niger were arrested over the circulation of a public invitation to a government press briefing; three—​Ibro Chaibou, Youssouf Sériba and Oumarou Kané—remained in pre-trial detention as of 3 November on cybercrime charges carrying up to five years’ imprisonment. Their arrests formed part of what expert actors describe as a growing pattern of intimidation and censorship since the 2023 coup. This pattern was enabled by the junta’s June 2024 amendment to the cybercrime law, which reinstated prison sentences and broadened offences such as ‘disseminating data likely to disturb public order’. At least 13 journalists have been arrested in Niger over the past year under the revised law. The United Nations and press-freedom groups said the vague provisions have been increasingly misused to criminalise routine journalistic activity and urged authorities to release the detained journalists and drop the charges.

Sources: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Media Foundation for West Africa, International Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, Committee to Protect Journalists