Niger's Justice and Human Rights Minister Alio Daouda told Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on October 6 that journalist Moussa Kaka "is alive", following the minister's September 25 acknowledgment at the UN that the journalist was detained. Kaka, the 66-year-old director of Radio Télévision Saraounia and a former RFI correspondent with 40 years in journalism, disappeared two days after a mutiny attempt against the Tiani junta; his vehicle has never been found.
Daouda had already acknowledged the detention, telling Niger's Universal Periodic Review session in Geneva on September 25 that Kaka had allegedly "committed an offence" and would "answer before the courts," while insisting "Niger does not disappear its citizens." The October 6 response to RSF reaffirmed his custody and said he was alive.
RSF says the admission does not resolve the case. The organization says authorities have not disclosed Kaka's whereabouts or the legal grounds for holding him, and considers him a victim of enforced disappearance under the international convention Niger has ratified. RSF had referred the case to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on September 28; Niger was separately told to clarify Kaka's fate by a UN body in early October, though accounts differ on the precise date and mechanism.
A Nigerien civil-society coalition, G25, has alleged — based on its own investigation, not independently verified by RSF — that Kaka is held by the external intelligence service DGDSE. Human Rights Watch situates the case within a wider 2026 crackdown that includes a lawyer, Abrourahamane Lirwana, facing prosecution over social-media remarks about divisions in the army, and the continued detention of former President Mohamed Bazoum and rights defender Moussa Tchangari (identified by HRW in this instance as Tiangari).