A court in Niamey on Friday sentenced Nigerien-Ivorian journalist Serge Mathurin Adou to two years in prison for "undermining state security" in a case of "destabilization" in neighboring Burkina Faso, sources close to the case and the journalist said on Monday.

Serge Mathurin Adou disappeared in Niamey on September 1, 2024, after telling his wife that he had to respond to a summons from the police.

A few weeks later, Burkina Faso's Minister of Security, Mahamadou Sana, accused him of being involved in a "plot" and in "several attempts to destabilize" his country.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, all three governed by military juntas, are allied within the confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

Mr. Adou was charged on November 11, 2024 with "undermining state security" and placed in pre-trial detention in a provincial prison, according to Victor Akpro Akessé, honorary consul of Ivory Coast in Niger.

"He (Serge Mathurin Adou) was sentenced to two years in prison" on Friday, a source close to the case told AFP.

A close associate of the journalist also confirmed this sentence, handed down during a trial at the Niamey High Court.

"The three professional judges and the two jurors unanimously handed down a sentence of two years imprisonment," reported the private Nigerien daily L'Enquêteur on Monday.

Relations between Ivory Coast and its neighbor Burkina Faso have been strained since Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power in a coup in September 2022 in that Sahelian country.

Serge Mathurin Adou, who had been living in Niger for about twenty years, worked as a journalist, notably at the private television station Canal 3 in Niamey.