Niger Coup: New Prime Minister Assures ‘Nothing Will Happen’ To Bazoum

The new Prime Minister of the Niger Republic, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, has assured that the Military junta, which overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum during a July 26 coup will do him no harm.

Speaking on the fate of overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum, Zeine told the New York Times that, “Nothing will happen to him, because we don’t have a tradition of violence in Niger.”

He also insisted the Niger coup leaders had no intention of collaborating with Russia, or with the Kremlin-backed mercenaries of the Wagner group.

While praising the “extremely reasonable position” of the White House in trying to resolve the crisis through diplomacy rather than force, Zeine, who served as finance minister in a previous administration, said, “the moment will come to review” such military partnerships.

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.

President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria earlier warned on Friday that there will be “grave consequences” if Niger’s military regime allows Bazoum’s health to worsen under house arrest, a European Union official said.

Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York 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,” she said.

Zeine, a French-trained economist who was appointed Niger’s prime minister on August 7, was also questioned by the New York 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.