The Niger Republic military junta has appointed the country’s former Minister of Economy, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, as the new prime minister.
This comes barely two weeks after the military ousted the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, and took over power in Niger.
The coup plotter announced this on television on Monday night.
Nigerien media reports that Lamine Zeine was an ex-Minister of Economy and Finance in the cabinet of former President Mamadou Tandja, who was ousted in 2010, and currently works as an economist for the African Development Bank in Chad.
An ultimatum from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to the coup plotters to reinstate Bazoum expired over the weekend.
Media Talk Africa reports that ECOWAS, a regional political and economic union of 15 countries located in West Africa, has threatened to restore democracy in Niger by force.
