Hama Amadou, emblematic opposition leader in Niger and former PM dies aged 74

Niger’s former Prime Minister Hama Amadou died in a hospital in the country’s capital, Niamey, Thursday, aged 74.

The cause of death was not disclosed.

Amadou was prime minister on two occasions — from 1995 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2007 — as well as speaker of Parliament between 2011 and 2014.

The politician unsuccessfully vied for the top seat on three occasions.

As the leader of the Nigerien Democratic Movement for an African Federation, one of the country’s major political parties which he founded in 2009.

A prominent member of the MNSD party, he founded his own party in 2009, Nigerien Democratic Movement for an African Federation.

The prominent politican went to prison several times during his career. In 2009 he notably was incarcerated in a maximum-security prison after being accused of embezzlement, a case that was later dismissed.

In 2015 he was jailed again in connection with an investigation into an illegal network trafficking infants from Nigeria, a charge he dismissed as politically motivated.

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Although Amadou was still in prison, he was cleared to stand as a presidential candidate by the Constitutional Court in the March 2016 presidential election, in which he came in second.

After leaving the country for a few years, Amadou returned to Niger in the aftermath of the July 2023 coup against Bazoum but stayed away from politics until his death.

According to local media reports, the ruling CNSP organized official funerals on Friday morning (Oct. 25). Amadou was then buried surrounding by relatives and friends only in his native town of Youri in Niger’s west.