NIAMEY, Dec 13 : Niger on Thursday announced it was suspending BBC radio for three months, with the British broadcaster joining the growing list of Western media sanctioned by military juntas in the Sahel.
The ban on the BBC accused of airing “erroneous information likely to destabilise social peace and undermine the morale of the troops” fighting jihadists will come into force “with immediate effect” countrywide, the leadership said.
Popular BBC programmes including ones in the Hausa language are broadcast in Niger via local radio partners.
Since seizing power in a July 2023 coup, the military government has banned several Western media outlets.
Besides the BBC, two French broadcasters, Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France 24, have been banned there since August 2023.
On Thursday evening, the junta also said it was “filing a complaint” against RFI.
No programme in particular was mentioned in the decisions taken concerning the BBC and RFI.
But on Wednesday both broadcasters reported that jihadists had killed 90 soldiers and upwards of 40 civilians in Chatoumane, in the western Tera region bordering Burkina Faso teeming with armed fighters.
Although AFP was unable to verify those numbers from an independent local source, a Western security source told AFP that 90 to 100 people died in Tuesday’s attack. -TVS
