Air Force Staff Sgt. Antonio Harmon, left, and Airman 1st Class Aaron Garcia, stationed at Air Base 201 in Agadez, Niger, build a desk for the local community Feb. 6, 2024. Niger’s military junta announced Saturday that it was severing military ties with the U.S. and revoking a pact that allowed American troops to be based there. ( Rose Gudex/U.S. Air Force)
STUTTGART, Germany — About 1,000 U.S. military personnel remain in Niger two days after the ruling junta announced that it wanted those forces out of the country in connection with an ongoing diplomatic dispute.
U.S. Africa Command on Monday confirmed that American forces are still in Niger, most of whom are concentrated at a drone base on the outskirts of the Sahara Desert city of Agadez. A separate contingent is at a similar site in Niamey, the capital, AFRICOM said.
It’s unclear how long the U.S. troops will be able to remain in the country, AFRICOM’s hub for counterterrorism missions across western Africa.
The situation puts at risk AFRICOM’s Agadez drone site, known as Air Base 201, which the Pentagon spent more than $100 million developing.
On Saturday, Niger’s military junta announced that it was severing military ties with the United States and revoking a pact that allowed the American troops to be based in the country.
Junta spokesman Col. Amadou Abdramane, announced the move on national television. The decision came days after a visit to Niger by AFRICOM’s Gen. Michael Langley and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee.
Abdramane accused the U.S. delegation of not following diplomatic protocols and denounced what he called “the condescending attitude” of its members.
Insa Garba Saidou, a local activist who assists Niger’s military rulers with their communications, criticized U.S. efforts to force the junta to pick between strategic partners.
“The American bases and civilian personnel cannot stay on Nigerien soil any longer,” he told The Associated Press.
Once a key partner in counterterrorism efforts across the Sahel, Niger has soured on the U.S. presence in the aftermath of a July coup that overthrew the democratically elected president.
Since then, American military operations in the country have been curtailed in accordance with U.S. rules that restrict cooperation with military juntas.
The tensions between Washington and Niamey also have raised the prospect of Russian acquisition of a foothold in the region.
In Senate testimony earlier this month, Langley said that Moscow is making aggressive moves in Africa and that a number of countries were “at the tipping point of actually being captured by the Russian Federation.”
He said Russian operatives have taken advantage of unrest stretching across much of western Africa, which has seen a series of coups in recent years. With the Americans sidelined in those countries, a door has opened for Russia to increase its presence.
Part of Russia’s attraction to Africa relates to “power projection capabilities” and access to natural resources that are vital to military industrial development, Langley said.
“I think at an accelerated pace, the Russian Federation is really trying to take over central Africa as well as the Sahel,” he testified.
