Niger’s new prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, told The New York Times on Friday that the generals who deposed President Mohamed Bazoum in a July 26 coup will do him no damage.
“Nothing will happen to him because we don’t have a violent tradition in Niger,” Zeine, the most senior civilian nominated by military commanders, told the newspaper in an interview from Dakar about the fate of deposed President Mohamed Bazoum.
Zeine further stated that the Niger coup leaders had no intention of working with Russia or the Kremlin-backed Wagner gang of mercenaries.
The New York Times reported that the coup leaders had cut off water and electricity to Bazoum’s house, where he has been confined since being ousted, and threatened to kill him if other African countries make good on a proposal to restore him to power through a military intervention.
Earlier Friday, President Bola Tinubu warned there will be “grave consequences” if Niger’s military regime allows Bazoum’s health to worsen under house arrest, a European Union official said.
At the UN headquarters in New York, a spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was questioned by reporters on the state of Bazoum’s health and if he was even still alive.
“I’ve spoken to someone who speaks to him regularly. And, yes, as far as we know and we have no indication to say that he’s not alive. So as far as I know, he’s alive,” said Stephane Dujarric.
Zeine, who was appointed Niger’s prime minister on August 7, was also questioned by the Times on the presence of 1,100 American soldiers and 1,500 French soldiers fighting against jihadists in anti-terrorist operations with the local army.
Zeine, a French-trained economist who had served as finance minister in a previous administration, said “the moment will come to review” such military partnerships, while praising the “extremely reasonable position” of the White House in trying to resolve the crisis through diplomacy rather than force.