Two weeks after the military dethroned Mohamed Bazoum, they have announced former economy minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as the country’s new prime minister.
This was made known by the Junta’s spokesperson, on television late 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.
Recall that the Junta after taking up power in Niger suspended the country’s constitution.
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.
ECOWAS issued a seven -day Ultimatum to the Junta to return president Bazoum or risk forceful eviction but it has since elapsed.
There are reports that ECOWAS will converge again on Thursday in Abuja to discuss the Coup in Niger.