The new elected president of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, was sworn in on Friday before the Constitutional Court during a solemn ceremony held in Niamey in the presence of heads of state from the sub-region.
Bazoum, who delivered his inaugural speech, recalled the historic political reports that link them to outgoing President Issoufou Mahamadou, subsequently outlining the main lines of his governance.
He also denounced “war crimes” committed in his country by “terrorist groups”. Niger is “confronted with the existence of terrorist groups whose barbarism has just exceeded all limits” and which “are engaged in massacres of innocent civilians on a large scale, occasionally committing real war crimes”, a- he said.
He considered that the leaders of these terrorist groups “ come under other countries, no terrorist leader has ever made any case of grievances against our State, even less formulated the slightest demand in its direction ”.
The Nigerien Constitutional Court had validated, by a judgment, the election of Mohamed Bazoum, candidate of the Niger Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS-Tarayya, in power), as the new president of Niger with 55.75% of the vote against to the opposition candidate Mahamane Ousmane (44.25%) in the second round of the ballot.
At 61, Mohamed Bazoum becomes the tenth head of state of Niger and the first to emerge from a transition by the ballot box since 1960.
