Washington has made the decision to completely withdraw its troops from Niger and relocate military personnel stationed in Chad as it explores alternative strategies for maintaining America’s counterterrorism efforts in the Sahel region, as per the announcement made by the Pentagon on Thursday.
The decision was prompted by requests from the military administrations of both African nations for the US forces to cease their operations in the region. Niger’s new leadership recently terminated a security agreement with the US, expressing disapproval of the presence of 1,000 American troops stationed in the country.
Chad, which shares a border with Niger, has also raised concerns about whether the current agreement includes US troops stationed at the sole American air base in the Central African nation.
Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder informed reporters on Thursday that Washington will be “repositioning” the roughly 100 troops stationed in Chad, emphasizing that this is a temporary measure during the ongoing security cooperation review, set to resume after Chad’s presidential election on May 6th.
Ryder mentioned that State Department officials were slated to meet with Nigerien authorities on Thursday to discuss the safe and organized withdrawal of US forces from Niger, with further meetings planned for the following week to coordinate the withdrawal process transparently and respectfully. 6. Since taking control in a coup last July, Niger’s new government has been reassessing military agreements with partners previously engaged by the ousted civilian leaders, including France and the US, who have been conducting anti-jihadist operations in the Sahel since 2013. These operations have been deemed ineffective in the region, leading to France being instructed to withdraw its troops by the end of last year.
The landlocked nation sought assistance from Moscow for its security requirements, as its interim leader, Abdourahamane Tchiani, engaged in talks regarding anti-terrorism collaboration in the Sahel region with Russian President Vladimir Putin recently. Reports from local media revealed that Russian military trainers arrived in Niamey weeks later, along with a shipment of equipment, to support the Nigerien military in counterterrorism training, despite the United States voicing apprehensions about Niger’s strengthening ties with Russia.
