Almost two weeks after the military took power in Niger, the coup leaders have named a prime minister. In a statement read on television late Monday night, a spokesman for the military junta announced economist Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as the new incumbent. Lamine Zeine used to be Economics and Finance Minister in the cabinet of ex-President Mamadou Tandja, who was ousted in 2010, and most recently worked as an economist for the African Development Bank in Chad, according to a Nigerien media report.
On July 26, Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum was removed from power by the military junta and the constitution was suspended. According to several US media, top American diplomat Victoria Nuland has now met the new chief of staff of the armed forces, Moussa Salao Barmou, and three other coup plotters. Among other things Channel CNN reported that Nuland was in Niger on Monday met with the new Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Moussa Salao Barmou, and three other members of the military junta.
What’s next politically in Niger? Two weeks after the coup, that is completely unclear.
(Photo: AFP)
The diplomat later described the more than two-hour conversation with some reporters as “very open and sometimes quite difficult”. Nuland has decades of experience as a US diplomat and has been Secretary of State for Political Affairs in Joe Biden’s administration since May 2021. Her request to meet the detained President Bazoum was denied. She was also unable to see the self-proclaimed new ruler, General Abdourahmane Tchiani.
“I hope that they will keep the door open to diplomacy,” she said, referring to the putschists. “We made this suggestion.” Nuland also pointed out to the military the consequences for relations with the United States if democratic order is not restored. She pointed out that aid to Niger had already been frozen.
Under Bazoum, Niger was one of the West’s last remaining strategic partners in the fight against the advance of Islamist terrorists in the Sahel. An ultimatum from the West African community of states Ecowas to the putschists to reinstate Bazoum expired at the weekend – so far without consequences. The heads of state and government of the member states now want to discuss how to proceed in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Thursday.