Niger arrests DW correspondent over report on Nigerian refugees

Dakar, January 26, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges authorities in Niger to release Gazali Abdou Tasawa, a correspondent for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), who was arrested over a report on Nigerian refugees living by a cemetery.

“Gazali Abdou Tasawa is the fifth journalist trapped behind bars in Niger because of reporting that questions Nigerien authorities’ governance, reinforcing an escalating pattern of the press being criminalized,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Arrest and detention have become tools-of-choice for Nigerien authorities to try to control information they find undesirable. We call for all five journalists to be promptly released.”

Tasawa was jailed on January 23 in the capital, Niamey, the day after he was questioned by police about his January 15 report on Nigerian refugees who said they were sleeping in the open by a cemetery after police demolished their informal shelters.  

DW told CPJ that it had not been informed of the charges against Tasawa, the outlet’s Hausa-language correspondent.

“It must be ensured that our employees can carry out their journalistic work freely and without intimidation,” said Nadja Scholz, Managing Director of Programming.

On January 20, a delegation from the Nigerian embassy visited Niger’s foreign affairs ministry to discuss the situation of about 1,300 Nigerians refugees in Niamey, following “unfounded rumors circulating on social media,” the ministry said.

Since a 2023 coup, Niger has been ruled by military authorities led by Abdourahamane Tiani, who regularly accuses Nigeria of plotting to destabilize Niger.

The junta introduced legal reforms and increased detentions, culminating in Niger becoming Africa’s third worst jailer of journalists, along with Rwanda and Ethiopia, in CPJ’s latest annual prison census with five journalists behind bars on December 1, 2025. This figure for imprisoned journalists marked an all-time high for Niger, which had previously had not featured in the census since 2017. 

Ali Soumana, who was arrested in September 2025 and appeared on the census, was released on January 22, while Hamid Mahmoud, Ibro Chaibou, Oumarou Abou Kané, and Youssouf Sériba remain imprisoned.

Separately, on December 23, 2025, Niger’s top court, the State Court, upheld the 2020 conviction of investigative journalist Samira Sabou who spent 48 days in detention while pregnant. Sabou won CPJ’s 2024 International Press Freedom Award.

The defamation case was filed by Sani Mahamadou Issoufou, the then-deputy chief of staff, when his father Mahamadou Issoufou was president, over a Facebook post by Sabou.

According to a copy of the decision, reviewed by CPJ, the court rejected Sabou’s argument that she should not have been prosecuted under the cybercrime law because she was a journalist, and that the press law would have been more appropriate.

The court ruled that the press law did not apply and the cybercrime law was the correct tool to use because the offense was committed by “electronic means” and that her status as a journalist was “of little importance.”

CPJ’s calls to request comment from Niger’s Ministry of Justice went unanswered.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The date in the 10th paragraph has been corrected to December 23, 2025.