Nearly two weeks after the military took over power in Niger Republic, the coup plotters have named former Minister of Finance, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, as the country’s new Prime Minister.
A spokesman for the military junta made the announcement on television on Monday night.
Lamine Zeine was formerly the minister of economy and finance for several years in the cabinet of then-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.
At the end of July, the military ousted the democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum and suspended the constitution in the country of 26 million inhabitants.
READ ALSO: Niger junta closes airspace as ECOWAS deadline expires
Under Bazoum, Niger had been one of the last strategic partners of the West in the fight against the advance of Islamist terrorists in the Sahel.
An ultimatum from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to the coup plotters to reinstate Bazoum expired on the weekend.
Otherwise, ECOWAS would take measures that could include force, the ultimatum said.
The prime ministers of the ECOWAS member states will now meet in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Thursday to discuss how to proceed.
- EPL: Liverpool thrash Tottenham in 9-goal thriller - December 22, 2024
- EPL: Bournemouth thrash Man United at Old Trafford as Everton draw Chelsea - December 22, 2024
- ‘It’ll improve access to education’: Kaduna poly lauds Uba Sani on retirement age - December 22, 2024
