The pledge was at odds with the country’s history — a president was assassinated by soldiers in 1999.
Niger Prime Minister, Ali Lamine Zeine has said that the coup leaders in the country has no intention of harming the deposed president or collaborating with the Russia-backed Wagner paramilitary group.
Zeine in an interview on Friday with The New York Times said of the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, “Nothing will happen to him, because we don’t have a tradition of violence in Niger.”
The pledge was at odds with the country’s history — a president was assassinated by soldiers in 1999.
The junta has been holding Bazoum captive in his home since July 26, denying him water and electricity, and threatening to kill him if the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS were to follow through on a proposal to reverse the coup militarily.
Zeine, an economist trained in France, was named prime minister by the junta earlier this month.
He was also the country’s finance minister in the 2000s, and an official with the African Development Bank until the military generals took over Niger.
The military takeover in Niger last month has threatened to further destabilize the Sahel, a vast semiarid region south of the Sahara that is already the global epicenter of terrorist activity.
The United States and France have troops and military bases in Niger to help fight off groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State in the region.
Two factions are now vying for power in Niger: Bazoum’s government, with most of its cabinet members either arrested or scattered abroad but still backed by Niger’s main international partners; and Zeine’s new government, effectively ruling Niger but shunned by most countries.
It is unclear how much influence Zeine wields in a regime now ruled by generals.
The two most senior members of his cabinet, the defense and the interior ministers, are both coup leaders.
“Among the generals who appear to be the tough guys, Zeine is the softer guy who can talk to the international community,” said Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, a senior Sahel analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Zeine was a trusted technocrat, Ibrahim said. But ultimately, “The power lies within the hands of the military,” he added.
Nigeria has cut off the electricity supply to Niger and ECOWAS has imposed financial sanctions against the country. Mr. Zeine said the sanctions had led to a shortage of medicine and soaring food prices, and he urged the West African bloc to lift them.
Zeine said “the moment will come to review” military partnerships with the United States, which has 1,100 troops as well as drone bases in Niger. But he praised the “extremely reasonable position” of the Biden administration, which has called for negotiations rather than military action to restore Niger’s democratic government.
The junta in power has turned down envoys from the West African bloc several times, but Zeine said he planned to meet with a new one in Niamey, the capital, on Saturday (today).
Western officials have expressed fears that the junta could seek to partner with Russia and the Wagner paramilitary group, which was done in neighboring Mali, where the military leaders have hosted 1,500 Wagner operatives to fend off an Islamist insurgency.
Zeine said “I have seen no intention” on the part of Niger’s military rulers to collaborate with Russia or the Wagner group. But, he added, “Don’t push Nigeriens to go toward partners that you don’t want to see here.”
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