On Monday night, as the international community worked to restore constitutional order in Niger, military coup leaders announced Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine’s appointment as prime minister in a statement read on national television.

The appointment of Mr. (Ali Mahaman) Lamine Zeine as Prime Minister was announced by Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane.

 

Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine was appointed cabinet director in 2001 and finance minister in 2002 by former president Mamadou Tandja, who took office amid a financial and economic crisis.

Assasination of General and President Ibrahim Baré Manassara in 1999 ushered in a period of military rule in a country with a long history of violent attempts to seize power.

 

Born in 1965 in Zinder (south), the country’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’études financières, économiques et bancaires in Marseille and Paris-I.

“Lieutenant-Colonel Habibou Assoumane” has also been “appointed Commander of the Presidential Guard”, added Mr Abdramane.

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.

President Bazoum has remained sequestered in his private residence since the day of the coup.

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