Niger junta appoints transitional PM as ECOWAS to hold another summit

Niger's junta has appointed a transitional prime minister according to a decree read on national television, more than a week after the military coup that toppled President Mohamed Bazoum.

The caretaker government, which calls itself the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, appointed on Monday economist Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine, according to a decree by General Abdourahmane Tchiani, the former commander of Niger's presidential guard, who declared himself the head of a transitional government.

Zeine, 58, served as finance minister under Mamadou Tandja, who led the country from 1999 to 2010 after its return to civilian rule. He currently serves as the African Development Bank’s Country Manager for Chad.

Zeine, who previously served at the same institution and position in Ivory Coast and Gabon, is expected to lead consultations for the formation of a new government.

The US State Department said it made direct contact with the coup leaders on Monday.

US acting deputy secretary of state Victoria Nuland flew to Niamey and held "frank and difficult" talks with senior junta officials but said they did not take up US suggestions for restoring democratic order.

Bazoum was detained by members of the Presidential Guard on July 26, who later that evening announced the government takeover. ​​​​​​​

ECOWAS holds second summit

The crisis - the seventh power grab in West and Central Africa in three years - has attracted global attention, partly due to Niger's pivotal role in a war with militants in the Sahel region and its uranium and oil reserves that give it economic and strategic importance for the United States, Europe, China and Russia.

The West African regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is to hold another emergency summit on Thursday in Nigeria to address the political crisis in Niger after the military leaders ignored its ultimatum to cede power by Sunday.

The coup leaders have vowed to resist all external pressure to reinstate Bazoum, after ECOWAS imposed sanctions and Western allies suspended aid.

The 15-nation ECOWAS bloc has taken a harder stance on the Niger coup than it did on previous ones and its credibility is at stake because it had said it would tolerate no further such overthrows.

ECOWAS defence chiefs agreed last Friday on a possible military action plan if detained Bazoum was not released and reinstated, although they said operational decisions would be taken by heads of state.

Any use of force by ECOWAS would risk further destabilising one of the world's poorest regions, making such an intervention unlikely, according to risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

"The bloc understands that a military intervention would be very costly, with no guarantee of success over the long-term and with a significant risk of escalation into a regional war," its Africa analyst Ben Hunter said in a note.

"It is fundamentally not in the interests of regional states."