Niger’s junta-appointed Prime Minister Ali-Mahaman Zeine is in Russia’s capital Moscow for talks aimed at deepening economic and military ties between the two countries.
Reports say he is accompanied by Defence Minister Salihou Mody as well as Niger’s ministers of petroleum and trade.
Niger’s National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland, CNSP, junta, which is under tough sanctions from its West African neighbours, is seeking to diversify its partnerships adding that CNSP has made clear intentions to free itself of Western influence, beginning with the severing of military ties with France.
STILL ON THE FOREIGN SCENE; Benin Republic has received its first doses of a vaccine for malaria which according to the Health Minister, Benjamin Hounkpatin is the leading cause of infant mortality in the country, and will begin administering them soon.
Hounkpatin said the first vaccinations will take place within a few months.
An immunisation specialist, Benin Yao also said that the vaccine will immunize around 200,000 children under the age of two noting that infants would receive four doses, at the age of six months, seven months, nine months and 18 months.