Meet Niger’s New Prime Minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, Announced By Coup Leaders

Leaders of the military junta in Niger Republic have named Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as the new prime minister of the country, nearly two weeks after seizing power from the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum.

This was made known in a national television broadcast on Monday evening by the spokesperson of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland,  by Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane.

Lamine Zeine is a former Minister of the Economy and Finance from November 2002 to February 2010.

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He served in the cabinet of then-president Mamadou Tandja, who was ousted in 2010.

According to a Nigerien media report, Lamine Zeine recently worked as an economist for the African Development Bank in Chad.

Lamine Zeine, who was born in 1965 in Zinder, Niger’s second most populous town, is of the Muslim faith.

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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.

His appointment came a day after an ultimatum issued by the Economic Community of West African States to the coup plotters to reinstate Bazoum expired.

ECOWAS threatened sanctions including the use of military force as the last option if the coup plotters refuse to reinstate President Bazoum in office.

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