Even if they represent an “unfair challenge”, the sanctions imposed following the coup in Niger can be “overcome”, assured the Prime Minister appointed by the military, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, in an interview Monday with the media. German Deutsche Welle.
“We believe that even though this is an unfair challenge that has been imposed on us, we should be able to overcome it. And we will overcome it,” the military-appointed prime minister said of the measures taken by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, an economist by training who served as finance minister in the early 2000s, was named a week ago by the perpetrators of the coup that toppled President-elect Mohamed Bazoum on 26 July.
In the interview with Deutsche Welle, he considers positive the visit this weekend to Niamey of a delegation of Nigerian clerics: “It reassures us because they are the spokespersons of a certain understanding of Nigerian society” , he says, according to his words transcribed by Deutsche Welle in English.
Nigeria and ECOWAS are important partners, assures Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine: “We have a great interest in preserving this important and historic relationship and in ensuring that ECOWAS works first on purely economic issues. »
But he also warns: “If we see that the political and military principle comes to the fore, instead of this economic solidarity, it would be very regrettable”, he underlines in the interview.
Among the sanctions taken by ECOWAS are the suspension of financial transactions with Niger and the freezing of all service transactions, including energy transactions, which is causing power cuts in the country.
ECOWAS, while favoring the path of dialogue, has also given the green light to an armed intervention against the military, by activating its “standby force”, even if the modalities of a possible West African military intervention have not not been disclosed.
