American missionary kidnapped from his home in Niger

Johannesburg — Multiple security sources in the West African nation of Niger told News themezone on Wednesday that a U.S. citizen was kidnapped from his home in the capital, Niamey, on Tuesday night.

They said the kidnapping by unknown assailants took place just about 100 meters from the presidential palace in Niamey, where ousted President Mohamed Bazoum has been held since he was overthrown in a coup more than two years ago.

Sources told News themezone that the man kidnapped Tuesday is a missionary who has worked for a U.S.-based charity for years.

News themezone has asked the US State Department for any information it can provide about the apparent kidnapping.

Sources said the American He was kidnapped by three unidentified armed men.

Messages circulating among security officials in Niamey suggested that the American had been working in Niger since 2010.

There has been no known demand from any kidnapper, nor any official response from the Nigerien government or the US embassy in Niamey.

The apparent kidnapping occurs two years after a July 2023 Coup who removed Bazoum and brought General Abdourahamane Tiani to power, while his military junta promised to restore security.

Sources told News themezone that the back gate of the presidential palace is just a few hundred meters from where the kidnapping took place, in the capital’s high-security Plateau district.

Sources told News themezone that Basoum has been held in the palace since his overthrow, living in two windowless rooms with no outside contact allowed by the military junta, other than an occasional visit to the doctor. Tiani has remained in a military barracks not far from the residential palace since he took power.

Security officials in the region have speculated that the kidnapping could be the work of ISIS’s affiliate in the region, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, which operates in the area along Niger’s shared borders. Mali and Burkina Faso.

From Niamey, it is only an hour’s drive to the border with Burkina Faso and two hours to the border with Mali.

Several Nigerien sources said Wednesday that the kidnapping was carried out by “three armed individuals” who “neutralized the guard before seizing their victim and quickly leaving the scene.”

They said the kidnapped American’s phone was tracked less than an hour after the kidnapping Tuesday night at a location about 56 miles north of Niamey, in an area “considered a sanctuary for groups affiliated with the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara” between the Nigerien capital and the Malian border.

The three neighboring states have seen military regimes overthrow civilian governments in the last half decade, along with Gabon and Guineaearning the West and Central African region the dubious nickname of Africa’s “coup belt.”

In:

• Niger
• Islamic State
• Africa
• coup d’état
• Kidnapping