A decade-old U.S. counterterrorism mission is in jeopardy.
When it comes to U.S. security priorities, Niger rarely gets a mention. And yet the U.S. military mission in Niger – with two bases and roughly 1,100 American troops – is larger than the U.S. deployments in Syria or Somalia, to name a pair of better-known counterterrorism hotspots.
Now, in the aftermath of the coup and a spike in tensions in the West African country, that mission is in jeopardy.
The White House has threatened to cut off military assistance to Niger if the country’s new military leaders do not return power to the country’s civilian government. The junta has closed the country’s airspace, meaning a halt to drone flights the U.S. conducts from those two American military bases in the country. The U.S. troops in Niger are now also at risk of being caught in the middle of a regional war, with the West African security organization ECOWAS threatening a military intervention to restore the country’s president to power. Officials have warned that the chaos could benefit the increasingly powerful jihadist groups in the region, and potentially provide an opening for Russia’s Wagner Group to expand its African footprint.