The European Union on Monday condemned the arrest by Niger’s new junta of ministers from the ousted government and demanded they be freed immediately.
The party of deposed President Mohamed Bazoum warned that the West African country risked becoming a “dictatorial and totalitarian regime” after a series of arrests.
The PNDS party said the ministers for oil and mining were detained, along with the head of its national executive committee.
“The EU denounces the continuing arrests of Ministers and senior officials of President Mohamed Bazoum’s government by the putschists in Niger,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell posted on social media.
“We call for their immediate release.”
The EU has condemned the armed takeover in Niger, a country it had seen as a key bulwark of stability in the volatile Sahel region.
The 27-nation bloc has suspended budgetary support to Niamey and warned it could impose further sanctions over the coup.
Bazoum, a Western ally whose election just over two years ago marked Niger’s first peaceful transition of power since independence, was toppled on July 26 by the elite Presidential Guard.