Junta names interim Prime Minister

Niger's military junta has named an interim Prime Minister who will run the country until elections can be organised.Mahamadou Danda, who was a counsellor to Niger’s embassy to Canada, has never been elected to office and is not a member of a political party.

Junta leader Salou Djibo AFP/B. Hama

"My priority is mainly to restore democracy,” Danda, 59, told the AFP news agency.

He was twice appointed as a government minister - in 1987 in President Ali Seibou’s government and again following the 1999 coup d’état, when he served in the junta’s transitional government.

Danda was appointed Tuesday night by Salou Djibo, who led last week’s coup d’état. Earlier Djibo was proclaimed head of state by the junta, which calls itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD).

He will hold the position for an unspecified amount of time, during a “period of transition”.

Djibo and Danda are to meet for the first time on Thursday.

Many in Niger are calling for a quick transition to democracy, and are concerned by the lack of specifics provided by the CSRD on timelines for elections.