WASHINGTON — The US will withdraw all of its troops and equipment from a small base in Niger this weekend and fewer than 500 remaining troops will leave a crucial drone base in the West African country in August ahead of a deadline of September 15 The American commander said this on Friday, as recorded in an agreement with the new junta.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman said in an interview that some small teams of 10 to 20 U.S. troops, including special operations forces, have been deployed to other countries in West Africa. But the bulk of the troops, at least initially, will go to Europe.
Niger expels US troops after a coup last year has far-reaching implications for the US, as it forces troops to abandon a key drone base that was used for counter-terrorism missions in the Sahel.
Ekman and others US military leaders have said Other West African countries want to cooperate with the U.S. and may be open to an expanded U.S. presence. He did not provide details on locations, but other U.S. officials have cited Ivory Coast and Ghana as examples.
Ekman, who is director of strategy at U.S. Africa Command, is leading the U.S. military withdrawal from the small airport base in Niger’s capital Niamey and the larger counterterrorism base in the city of Agadez. He said there would be a ceremony Sunday to mark the completed withdrawal of the airport base, after which the last 100 troops and the last C-17 transport planes would depart.
Speaking to reporters from The Associated Press and Reuters at the U.S. Embassy in Niamey, Ekman said that while portable buildings and vehicles that are no longer usable will be left behind, much larger equipment will be removed. For example, he said, 18 4,000-pound (1,800-kilogram) generators worth more than $1 million each will be removed from Agadez.
Unlike the withdrawal from Afghanistan, he said, the US is not destroying equipment or facilities as it leaves.
“Our goal in the execution is to leave things in the best possible condition,” he said. “If we went out and left a mess or if we left out of spite, or if we destroyed things along the way, we would eliminate options for future security relations.”
Niger’s ruling junta ordered US troops to leave the country after the country’s democratically elected president was ousted by mutinous soldiers in July last year. The French troops had also been asked to leave when the junta turned around the Russian mercenary group Wagner for security assistance.
Washington officially labeled the military takeover a coup in October, triggering US laws limiting military support and aid.