While the ultimatum sent by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for a return to constitutional order in Niger expired Sunday evening at midnight, the perpetrators of the coup in Niamey maintain their course of action. They announced, Monday, August 7 in the evening, the appointment of a Prime Minister.
” Sir [Ali Mahaman] Lamine Zeine is appointed Prime Minister »reported Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane, in a press release read on national television. “Lieutenant Colonel Habibou Assoumane” has also been “appointed commander of the presidential guard”added Mr. Abdramane.
The announcement was made as a senior American diplomat, Victoria Nuland, said Monday evening that she had met the coup leaders in Niamey for discussions that failed to find a solution. negotiated solution. “These discussions were extremely frank and at times quite difficult”, she told reporters over the phone. The number two of the acting American diplomacy said to have met in particular the brigadier general Moussa Salaou Barmou, new chief of staff of the army, but not to have been able to speak with the head of the military in power , General Abdourahamane Tiani.
According to the Washington envoy, his interlocutors have been unresponsive to US exhortations and warnings to return the country to civilian rule, and they are aware of the “risks” of an alliance with Russia.
For his part, the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, declared on Radio France Internationale (RFI) that diplomacy was the “preferable way” to resolve the crisis. ” This is the approach of ECOWAS, it is our approach and we support the efforts of ECOWAS to restore constitutional order”Mr. Blinken said.
Graduated in France
The Prime Minister appointed in the evening by the military is far from being unknown to the political world in Niger. Ali Lamine Zeine was appointed chief of staff in 2001, when former president Mamadou Tandja came to power, before taking on the role of finance minister in 2002 to redress a chaotic economic situation. This economist had kept his job until the overthrow of Mamadou Tandja in 2010, during the coup carried out by Commander Salou Djibo, before a presidential election won by Mahamadou Issoufou, predecessor of Mohamed Bazoum, ousted on July 26 by the current putschists.
Mr. Zeine, born in 1965 and a graduate of the Center for Financial, Economic and Banking Studies in Marseille and Paris-I, was also Resident Representative of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Chad, Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon.
His appointment comes the day the Malian army announced the dispatch by Mali and Burkina Faso of a joint official delegation to Niamey, in “solidarity” with Nigeria. ECOWAS had threatened to use force after the deadline had expired. Mali and Burkina Faso, where the military also forcibly seized power in 2020 and 2022 respectively, have warned they would view such an intervention as a ” declaration of war “.
ECOWAS in “extraordinary summit”
ECOWAS leaders will meet in Abuja on Thursday for a “extraordinary summit” on Niger, the organization announced on Monday. ” [Ils] will look at the political situation and recent developments in Niger”, develops a press release published by the organization. An immediate military intervention to restore President Bazoum is not envisaged at this stage, according to a source close to ECOWAS.
On his side, “the junta asked the ECOWAS delegation to return” by Tuesday in Niger, ousted Nigerien Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou told TV5 Monde on Monday. This delegation, which arrived in Niamey on Thursday, left a few hours later without achieving any results.
Sunday evening, shortly before the end of the ECOWAS ultimatum, the Nigerien military announced that it was closing the country’s airspace ” until further notice “. They invoked a “threat of intervention which is becoming clearer from neighboring countries”, ensuring that “any attempt to violate the airspace” will cause “an energetic and instantaneous response”.
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The closure of airspace complicates the service of certain African destinations by European companies which had to adapt on Monday, sometimes urgently. Flights from Libreville, Douala, Kinshasa and Cotonou to Paris have had to return to their starting point to refuel in anticipation of an extended route that does not fly over the vast territory of Niger, said Air France-KLM at Agence France-Presse.
The National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland (CNSP, the ruling military body) also claimed that a “pre-deployment for the preparation of the intervention has been done in two Central African countries”without specifying which ones and adding: “Any state involved will be considered co-belligerent. »
“Creating a New Alliance”
Several voices outside Niger have spoken out in recent days against any military intervention. The senators of Nigeria, heavyweight of ECOWAS, called for strengthening “the political and diplomatic option”and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune felt that an intervention would be a “direct threat” against his country, another neighbor of Niger and a major player in the Sahel.
In Europe, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday ” to hope “ that the ECOWAS ultimatum was going to be ” prolonged “. “It is not said that we will not find a solution that is not war”did he declare in a daily interview La Stampa. “Europe cannot afford an armed confrontation, we must not be seen as new colonizershe explains. We must create a new alliance with African countries that is not based on exploitation. »
In Germany, “we believe that the mediation efforts are only in their infancy because the sanctions are only beginning to produce their effects”, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sebastian Fischer. There is, according to him, “no automation” between the end of the ECOWAS ultimatum and an armed intervention in Niger.
For its part, France, a former colonial power in West Africa, increasingly reviled by supporters of the military who took power in Niamey, Bamako and Ouagadougou, hammered home its support for the efforts of the ECOWAS to defeat the “attempted coup” in Niger.
“The march forward”
Niamey woke up to calm on Monday the day after a show of force by some 30,000 military supporters who gathered in Niger’s biggest stadium. Flags of the country, but also of Burkina or Russia, were waved there, France and ECOWAS booed, members of the CNSP cheered by the crowd. General Mohamed Toumba, number three of the CNSP, took the floor to denounce those “who lurk in the shadows” And “scheming subversion” against “Niger’s march forward”.
President Mohamed Bazoum has been held prisoner in his home since July 26. On Sunday, the Minister of Mines, Ousseini Hadizatou, was released “for medical reasons”, said a member of his entourage on Monday. But according to a source close to the ousted president’s party, “all the other personalities, ministers and political leaders arrested are still detained”.
The coup d’etat which overthrew President Bazoum, a privileged ally of France and the United States, which respectively deployed 1,500 and 1,100 soldiers there in the fight against the armed jihadists who are undermining the region, was strongly condemned in the most countries in Africa and elsewhere in the world.