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Authorities in Niger have released two journalists who had been in detention for months.
The families of the detained journalists, who include a correspondent for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) and the editor-in-chief of Toubal Info, a newspaper from the Dosso region of the Sahel, announced their release on Thursday.
DW’s correspondent, Gazali Abdou, was jailed in January after reporting on the living conditions of hundreds of refugees who had fled Nigeria for Niger’s capital, Niamey.
Toubal chief editor Hassane Zada was sentenced in September to 30 months’ imprisonment for making “insulting remarks” about junta leader Abdourahamane Tiani.
Gaskia TV said Abdou had been “granted provisional release” on Thursday morning.
Zada’s family members told AFP that he was freed on Tuesday after seven months in prison in Dosso, in the southwest.
His release was confirmed by a judicial official, who pleaded anonymity.
Niger has arrested, imprisoned or convicted more than a dozen journalists since the military seized power in a coup in July 2023.
According to the United Nations (UN), 13 journalists were arrested in the West African country in 2025. The UN has called for their release.
They include six who have been imprisoned on charges of “undermining national defence” and “conspiracy against state authority”.
Six of the detained journalists were imprisoned on charges of “undermining national defence” and “conspiracy against state authority”.
Another journalist, the editor-in-chief of major weekly Le Courrier, was jailed on defamation charges after an article on cigarette fraud allegedly worth millions of dollars that implicated several prominent figures, including Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine.
The West African country has plummeted 37 places in the press freedom ranking compiled by the NGO Reporters Without Borders, coming 120th out of 180 countries.
