At a time when the international community is attempting to restore constitutional order, the military coup leaders in Niger announced the selection of Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as prime minister in a statement read out on national television on Monday evening.
“Mr (Ali Mahaman) Lamine Zeine has been appointed Prime Minister”, Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane reported.
“Lieutenant-Colonel Habibou Assoumane” has also been “appointed Commander of the Presidential Guard”, added Mr Abdramane.
ECOWAS ultimatum
These appointments come a day after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the ruling military an ultimatum to restore President Mohamed Bazoum to office. The organisation did not rule out the use of force if this demand was not met.
Niger’s Western and African partners are divided on the question of military intervention to return power to civilians, before ECOWAS meets again on Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria.
On Tuesday AFP reported it had seen a letter from the coup’s leaders to ECOWAS, postponing the visit of a delegation to Niamey on security grounds.
President Bazoum
President Bazoum has remained sequestered in his private residence since the day of the coup.
Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, an economist by training, has held ministerial positions in previous governments in Niger and was also a resident representative of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Chad, Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon.
Born in 1965 in Zinder South, Niger’s second most populous town, he joined the Ministry of Economy and Finance in 1991 after studying at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in Niamey. He is also a graduate of the Centre d’Etudes Financières, Economiques et Bancaires in Marseille and Paris.
