31 Facts About Mohamed Bazoum

Mohamed Bazoum is a Nigerien politician who served as the 10th president of Niger from 2021 to 2023.

Mohamed Bazoum was ousted in the 2023 Nigerien coup d'etat by members of the presidential guard and the armed forces led by Abdourahamane Tchiani.

Mohamed Bazoum served in as a minister of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 1996 and again from 2011 to 2016.

Mohamed Bazoum was born in 1960 in the village of Bilabrin, French Niger, in the present-day Diffa Region of Niger.

Mohamed Bazoum was raised in the town of Tesker, 200 kilometers west of Bilabrin, in Zinder Region.

Mohamed Bazoum is a member of the Ouled Slimane people, an Arab tribe originally from the Fezzan region of Libya who constitute a small minority within both Niger and the larger Nigerien Arab population.

Mohamed Bazoum attended primary school in Goure and graduated from Amadou-Kouran-Daga High School in Zinder.

Mohamed Bazoum studied philosophy in the faculty of letters and human sciences' philosophy department at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal from 1979 to 1984.

Mohamed Bazoum then completed his master's degree in political and moral philosophy, at the University of Dakar, including a diploma in logic and epistemology.

Mohamed Bazoum joined the National Union of Teachers of Niger, a national trade union.

Mohamed Bazoum then joined the executive committee of the Trade Union of Workers of Niger, which he represented at the 1991 National Conference.

Mohamed Bazoum is married to Hadiza Mabrouk Mohamed Bazoum, who became first lady of Niger.

Mohamed Bazoum became a founding member of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism in 1990, along with Mahamadou Issoufou.

Mohamed Bazoum served as Secretary of State for Cooperation under the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in the transitional government of Prime Minister Amadou Cheiffou from 1991 to 1993.

Mohamed Bazoum was elected to the National Assembly from the special constituency of Tesker as the PNDS candidate in a special election held on 11 April 1993; this followed the cancellation of the initial election in Tesker, held in February.

Mohamed Bazoum was initially reappointed to that post after Ibrahim Bare Mainassara seized power in a military coup on 27 January 1996, but he was replaced in the government named on 5 May 1996.

The PNDS opposed Mainassara, and on 26 July 1996, Mohamed Bazoum was placed under house arrest along with PNDS President Mahamadou Issoufou, a few weeks after the 1996 presidential election.

Mohamed Bazoum was arrested along with two other major opposition politicians, including MNSD Secretary-General Hama Amadou, in early January 1998, for allegedly participating in a plot to assassinate Mainassara.

Mohamed Bazoum was never charged and was released a week after his arrest.

Mohamed Bazoum was again elected to the National Assembly in the December 2004 parliamentary election, and during the parliamentary term that followed he was Third Vice-President of the National Assembly and Vice-President of the PNDS Parliamentary Group.

Mohamed Bazoum was re-elected as PNDS Vice-President at the party's Fifth Ordinary Congress, held on 18 July 2009.

Mohamed Bazoum said that the junta should hold Tandja until "democratic institutions" were in place, and then Tandja should be tried, although he said that he felt the death penalty would be unnecessary.

Issoufou took office as President of Niger on 7 April 2011, and Mohamed Bazoum was appointed to the government as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, African Integration, and Nigeriens Abroad on 21 April 2011.

Mohamed Bazoum was moved to the post of Minister of State at the Presidency on 25 February 2015.

The move was viewed as allowing Mohamed Bazoum to focus on leading the PNDS in anticipation of Issoufou's bid for re-election in 2016.

Mohamed Bazoum was elected to the National Assembly in the February 2016 parliamentary election.

Mohamed Bazoum has promised to target the ISIS insurgency in Niger, assisting the neighboring country of Mali in the process, reinforce Nigerien defence and security, and tackle corruption in the country.

In December 2022, Mohamed Bazoum was appointed current president of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, during the 23rd ordinary summit of heads of state and government of the organization in Abidjan.

Mohamed Bazoum declared himself acting head of state and called on all democrats to "make this adventure fail".

Mohamed Bazoum was believed to be detained at the presidential palace along with his wife Hadiza and son Salem; his daughters were vacationing in Paris at the time of the coup.

Mohamed Bazoum continued to refuse to sign his resignation decree and remained imprisoned with his wife by the Nigerien junta at his presidential residence.