Moussa Kaka, a veteran journalist and CEO of Radio Télévision Saraounia (RTS), was last seen leaving work on August 31, 2026, in his vehicle in the capital Niamey, an RTS journalist told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.
Since Kaka’s disappearance, neither he nor his vehicle have been found and his phones have remained switched off. His family has asked Niamey’s judicial police to investigate his whereabout, according to the person who spoke to CPJ.
“We have not yet located Kaka but we are continuing to take the legal steps appropriate for this type of situation,” Kaka’s lawyer Boudal Effred Mouloul said in early September.
On September 25, during Niger’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Justice Minister Alio Daouda said that Kaka and Moussa Tchangari, a prominent human rights activist who has been detained for nearly two years, had committed offenses and would have to answer for them in court.
“Niger is not a country which disappears its citizens. Nobody has been disappeared in Niger. They are being held in detention,” he added without specifying what legal proceedings had been brought against Kaka.
Mouloul told CPJ on October 7 that judicial authorities had not informed him that Kaka was in state custody.
The RTS journalist said on October 8 that Kaka’s whereabouts remained unknown.
Journalists have come under increased pressure since the military took power in 2023. At the time of Kaka’s disappearance, tensions were high after the military quashed an attempted coup by mutinous soldiers on August 29, 2026.
Kaka, correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI) until it was banned in Niger, has been arrested, threatened, and intimidated multiple times during his career. In 2008, he was released after 379 days in prison on anti-state charges related to his coverage of years-long unrest in northern Niger.
In October 2025, Kaka was briefly arrested and charged with five other journalists for “disseminating data likely to disturb public order” for allegedly sending an invitation about a government news conference to an exile who worked for ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. The exile, Hamid Amadou N’gadé, posted the invitation letter on Facebook, with commentary.
CPJ’s October 2026 calls to request comment from the ministries of communication and justice and an email to government spokesman Mamadou Saidou went unanswered.