A Benin court has jailed three Nigeriens who were detained last week at a port, judicial sources said on Friday, as diplomatic tensions deepen between the two West African neighbours.

Ties between Benin and Niger have been strained since last year’s coup that ousted Nigerien President Mohammed Bazoum, and Benin’s port of Seme-Kpodji, which exports Niger’s oil, is a flashpoint.

Five Nigeriens were arrested last week at Seme-Kpodji, accused of entering the port illegally.

Three of the five, including the deputy general director of the oil company Wapco-Niger, were jailed on Thursday after appearing before a judge, several judicial sources told AFP.

Their trial is set to begin on Monday June 17.

“Two of them were released,” one of the judicial sources said.

Their lawyer did not respond to several calls from AFP.

Under regional sanctions imposed on Niger after the coup, Benin closed the border, but has since reopened it. Niger’s military rulers have refused to reopen their side.

Benin also announced on national television last week that it was lifting a “blockade” on Nigerien oil.

Beninese President Patrice Talon had long conditioned the start of loading of Nigerien oil on the reopening of the border.

The efforts of Chinese company Wapco, which manages the pipeline, have never been successful.

Beninese authorities say at least two of the five arrested on June 5 were not employees of Wapco-Niger but “Nigerian agents”, who entered the site with fake badges.

According to Niamey, the team was on a mission to Benin to oversee the loading of oil.

The military regime in Niger described the arrests as a “kidnapping” and said it was ready to “take all measures” to have them released “unconditionally”.

The day after their arrest, the military regime in Niamey closed the valves of the oil pipeline, Nigerien public television announced Thursday.

Niger’s military rulers accuse Benin of harbouring “French bases” in its north to “train terrorists” to destabilise Niamey, accusations which both France and Benin have dismissed.

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Idris was found guilty of killing a mother and her daughter — Sa’adiya Idris and Khadija Alkali.

The incident was said to have occurred in April at Alabama quarters in Birnin Kebbi.

The suspect had reportedly confessed to using a cutlass to hit Sa’adiya until she was dead.
He also said he killed the woman’s daughter, Khadija, to cover up his crime.

Idris said he committed the crime because Sa’adiya had call him an “animal”.

In his ruling on Friday, Suleiman Ambursa, the presiding judge, said the defendant was arraigned on a two-count charge of homicide, punishable by death under sections 191(a) and (b) of the Kebbi State Penal Code 2021.
Ambursa found the defendant guilty, after he pleaded guilty to the crime, and sentenced him to death by hanging.

On his part, Suleiman Alkali, the defendant’s counsel, said the law had made a provision for appeal, adding that he has not yet decided on the next line of action.

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“Baba Alpha’s year-long imprisonment and expulsion by the Nigerien government is an outrage of justice intended to silence a journalist for doing his job,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “Nigerien authorities should allow Baba Alpha to continue to work freely and live in safety with his family in Niger.”

The expulsion order, which was seen by CPJ, came from Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s minister of interior. Alpha’s release and expulsion followed a March 12 Nigerien appeals court decision to suspend the second year of his two-year prison sentence, according to the journalist, his lawyer Amadou Boubacar, and media reports.

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“I am born in Niger, I was grown in Niger, I did my studies in Niger, I married a Nigerien, and both my children were born in Niger,” Alpha told CPJ from Labbezanga. His imprisonment and expulsion without identity documents were in reprisal for his critical reporting about the Nigerien government, he said. “I’m practically in detention in the middle [on the Niger and Malian border] and can’t go either way,” he said. Mali’s Gao region, where Labbezanga is located, is a particularly violent site of the years-long conflict between the government, rebels, and Islamic militants, news reports say.

Alpha was arrested on March 30, 2017, and was charged on April 3, 2017, with the use of false documents asserting his Nigerien nationality, according to CPJ research.

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