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Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, the junta spokesperson stopped short of saying U.S. forces should leave and announced that Niger was suspending military cooperation with Washington. He added that U.S. flights over the country’s territory in recent weeks were illegal.
Diplomatic and military relations between the United States and Niger hit a new low this weekend. Niger’s junta said recently the U.S. military presence in the country was no longer justified and it was illegal.
Niger plays a central role in the U.S. military’s operations in Africa’s Sahel region and is home to a major airbase. The U.S. is concerned about the spread of jihadist violence in the region, where it has a military base, having 650 personnel. The growing support to al-Qaida and the Islamic State extremists particularly among the youth in the Sahel country, has been a concern for the US and other West African countries.
Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, the junta spokesperson stopped short of saying U.S. forces should leave and announced that Niger was suspending military cooperation with Washington. He added that U.S. flights over the country’s territory in recent weeks were illegal.
The U.S. military in recent years began operating a major airbase in the Niger city of Agadez, some 920 kilometers (550 miles) from the capital of Niamey. The US uses the base for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations. The U.S. has also invested for years hundreds of millions of dollars in training Niger’s military.
In October, Washington officially designated the military takeover as a coup. This has led to restricting the military support to Niger. In December, the top U.S. envoy for Africa, Molly Phee, said the U.S. was willing to restore aid and security ties if Niger met certain conditions.
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Niger maintains that the U.S. tone was condescending and threatened Niger’s sovereignty. The country has terminated its security partnership with the European Union and France has withdrawn its troops from the country since the July coup. Phee and Marine Gen. Michael Langley, head of the U.S. military’s African Command, were in Niamey recently to meet with senior Niger government officials.
