Johannesburg — Multiple security sources in the West African country of Niger told CBS News on Wednesday that a US citizen was kidnapped from his home in the capital Niamey on Tuesday evening.
They said the abduction by unknown assailants took place just 100 yards from the presidential palace in Niamey, where ousted President Mohamed Bazoum has been held since he was ousted in a coup more than two years ago.
Sources told CBS News that the man kidnapped Tuesday is a missionary who worked for many years as a pilot for an American charity.
CBS News has asked the State Department for any information about the alleged abduction.
Sources said the American was kidnapped by three unknown armed men. The kidnapped man was expected to take a taxi to Niamey airport, where he was due to board a Royal Air Maroc flight on Tuesday evening.
Reports circulating among Niamey security officials suggest the American has been working in Niger since 2010.
AFP via Getty
There were no known demands from the kidnappers, nor was there any official response from the Niger government or the US embassy in Niamey.
The apparent kidnapping occurred two years after Coup in July 2023 this overthrew Bazoum and brought General Abdurahamane Tiani to power, with his military junta vowing to restore security.
Sources told CBS News that the back door of the presidential palace is just a few hundred yards from the abduction site, in the capital's high-security Plateau area.
Sources told CBS News that Basum has been kept in the palace since his ouster, living in two windowless rooms and with no contact with the outside world allowed by the military junta except for occasional doctor visits. Since the seizure of power, Tiani has lived in a military barracks near the residential palace.
AFP via Getty 
Security officials in the region suggested the kidnapping could be the work of ISIS' affiliate in the region, the Islamic State of the Greater Sahara, which operates in an area along Niger's shared borders. Mali And Burkina Faso.
From Niamey, it's just an hour's drive to the border with Burkina Faso and two hours to the border with Malia.
Bogdanserban/Getty 
Multiple sources in Niger said on Wednesday that the kidnapping was carried out by “three armed men” who “neutralized the guard before grabbing their victim and quickly leaving the scene.”
They said the kidnapped American's phone was tracked less than an hour after the kidnapping late Tuesday at a location about 56 miles north of Niamey – in an area “believed to be a safe haven for groups linked to the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara” between the Nigerian capital and the border with Malia.
In all three neighboring states, military regimes have overthrown civilian rule over the past half decade, as well as Gabon And Guinearesulting in the region of West and Central Africa receiving the dubious nickname of Africa's “coup belt.”
