HAMA AMADOU: Emblematic public official repeatedly was imprisoned. PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA

Niamey, Niger (AP) – Niger’s former Prime Minister Hama Amadou died in a hospital in the country’s capital, Niamey, after years of suffering from medical problems, a former deputy and close friend said Thursday. He was 74.

The cause of death was not disclosed. "Hama Amadou weathered all the political storms of his country with fierce determination," Niger’s main newspaper L’Enqueteur wrote on its the front page Thursday.

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. He also ran, unsuccessfully, in the 2011, 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

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, he was a fierce rival of former presidents Mahamadou Issoufou and Mohamed Bazoum, who was overthrown in a coup in 2023.

Amadou went to prison several times during his political career. In 2009 he 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.

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. He was released a month later to receive medical treatment in France, where he stayed until 2019. Upon his return to Niger, Amadou was incarcerated for eight months, in connection to the same human trafficking case. After his release, the former prime minister ran again in the presidential election in 2020, but his candidacy was rejected. He refused to recognize Bazoum’s victory.

He was imprisoned again in February 2021 after being accused of being among those responsible for the unrest following Bazoum’s victory, but was released two months later for health reasons and flew to France.

Amadou returned to Niger after the July 2023 coup against Bazoum, but stayed away from politics until his death.