Coup leaders in Niger on Monday evening named Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeineas the country’s new prime minister in a statement read out on national television. Zeineas has previously served as Niger’s cabinet director and finance minister. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Monday diplomacy is the ‘preferred way’ to resolve the crisis in Niger as coup leaders held talks with a US envoy. Follow our blog to see how the day’s events unfold. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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4:56am: Blinken says diplomacy ‘preferred way’ to resolve Niger crisis
Diplomacy is the best option for the international community to deal with the coup crisis in Niger, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday.
“Diplomacy is certainly the preferred way of resolving this situation,” he told French Radio RFI.
“It is ECOWAS’ current approach. It is our approach,” he said, referring to the West African bloc amid efforts to reinstate the ousted democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum, who was detained last week.
12:32am: US envoy meets Niger coup leaders but sees no headway
The second-ranking US diplomat met Niger’s military leaders on Monday to press to reverse a coup but she reported no headway a day after the junta ignored an ultimatum from the West African bloc.
Victoria Nuland, who is the acting deputy secretary of state, said she met for more than two hours with chiefs of the military who on July 26 ousted Mohamed Bazoum, a democratically elected Western ally. She said the coup leaders refused to let her meet with the ousted president.
She described the talks as “extremely frank and at times quite difficult” but that she offered “a number of options” to exit the crisis and restore the relationship with the United States, which like other Western nations has suspended aid over the coup.
“This was a first conversation in which the United States was offering its good offices if there is a desire on the part of the people who are responsible for this to return to the constitutional order,” she told reporters by telephone before flying out.
“I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer.”
11:46pm: Niger coup leaders name new prime minister
Coup leaders in Niger announced Monday evening announced Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeineas the country’s new prime minister in a statement read out on national television.
Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine held the position of cabinet director in 2001, then finance minister in 2002 under former president Mamadou Tandja. He served as finance minister until Tandja was overthrown in a coup d’étatin 2010.
In Monday’s statement, Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane also named Lieutenant-Colonel Habibou Assoumane as Niger’s new Commander of the Presidential Guard.
Key developments from Monday, August 7:
West African regional bloc ECOWAS will hold a summit in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Thursday to discuss the coup in Niger, ECOWAS spokesperson Emos Lungu told Reuters on Monday.
A deadline set by ECOWAS for Niger’s junta to return power to the country’s ousted president expired on Sunday.
The closure of Niger’s airspace by the military who have seized power is complicating services to certain African destinations by European airlines, which had to make some urgent adjustments on Monday.
Shortly after the closure of Niger’s airspace “until further notice”, several aircrafts in flight were immediately forced to divert. Flights from Libreville, Douala, Kinshasa and Cotonou bound for Paris had to return to their point of departure to refuel in anticipation of a longer journey.
Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)