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NIGER: The new military leader

[Senegal] President Abdoulaye Wade UN
Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade
    DAKAR

    Niger's new military leader, Major Daouda Mallam Wanke, who seized power in a coup last week has been a military man
    all his professional life.

    According to a brief profile broadcast by the 'Voix du Sahel' government radio station on Monday, Wanke, a father of four, was born in 1954 in Yelu, a village in the country's southernmost Gaya District some 250 km south of the capital Niamey.

    In the mid 1970s, it said he received training in "military engineering management" in Algeria.

    "From 1980 to 1983, he attended the Antsirabe military academy in
    Madagascar. From 1983 through to 1984, he attended an artillery management course in France. He was also in Montpellier in France for training," it said.

    In Niger, he has since held "top" positions in the army. These included command of the Niamey Support Company, a post as commander of the 10th Inter-Arms Battalion in Niamey, and until the assassination of President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara on Friday, he was commander of the presidential guard.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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