Niger’s Interior Ministry has said that the US will submit a plan to “disengage” its troops from the West African nation, AFP reported.
Earlier this month, Niger’s military-led government, which took power after a July 2023 coup, said that it was ending its military agreement with the US and that the US military presence in the country was no longer legally justified.
Despite the order, the US is looking to stay in the country and has said it’s seeking clarification from the Nigerien government, known as the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP).
US Ambassador Kathleen FitzGibbon met with Nigerien Interior Minister General Mohamed Toumba on Wednesday to discuss the issue. Niger’s Interior Ministry said FitzGibbon said the US had “taken note of the decision” by Niger to withdraw from the military agreement and would be “coming back with a plan” on the “methods for disengaging” its troops in the country.
But when asked about Niger’s statement, the US State Department refused to comment. “I don’t want to get into what – from our perspective, at least – are private diplomatic conversations,” said State Department spokesman Matt Miller.
The US has about 1,000 military personnel in Niger, including 650 troops and a few hundred civilian contractors, and a major drone base that cost over $100 million to build, known as Air Base 201.
The US is also preparing for the possibility of getting kicked out, as The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that the US was in talks with other West African states to base drones on their territory, including Benin, the Ivory Coast, and Ghana.
After Gaza, most of the world wants “Nothing to do with the U.S”. said one of the employee who quit the the State Department to protest American &’Biden administration’s support for the Israeli genocide of innocent Palestinians, 70% of whom are women & children…!!!!!
On the other hand, there’s the real world with facts, outside your “anything the U.S. does must be bad!” easy worldview. The reason there are U.S. troops in Niger is because of the attacks by Islamists in Western Sahara, killing thousands.
You don’t even know why there was a coup in Niger, and you seem to think “because US bad!” That’s the result of only reading websites that say what you want to hear. The reason for the coup is that the officers didn’t think the government was fighting the Islamists effectively. That was also the reason for the other coups in the area. There is an international war going on in West Africa, with Islamists attacking villagers across the borders.
That the coupsters would be able to fight the Islamists better than the democratically elected government and the U.S. base is laughable. All they have is pickup trucks with mounted machine guns, on account of African militaries and rebels falling in love with the Toyota pickup trucks long ago. Neighboring Nigeria has a far bigger army, but the criminals who took over Niger has cut off all cooperation.
But please, go back to “THE GLOBAL MAJORITY doesn’t want ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE U.S.!!!”
I will have to agree with you on this one but you just made a bunch of adversaries in this blog with your statement.
The majority here are anti US and pro US adversaries.
Nothing is private…! Time to pack up and Leave…!
“ France was perhaps the most reluctant of the major colonial powers to relinquish its colonies. So strong was the desire to hold Algeria, for instance, that perceived government mishandling and incompetence regarding the Algerian War for independence led directly to the end of the Fourth Republic in a coup d’etat. With the end of that conflict, France would have superficially appeared to many observers to have forsaken the concept of an empire. However, in reality, France’s dreams of empire status did not end in the 20th century; they simply shifted forms. France continues to exploit its former colonies to this day, the major difference being that instead of exploitation through direct rule, it is largely through economic and political means. ”
https://phillipian.net/2022/12/08/french-economic-neocolonialism-in-west-and-central-africa/
“ The intensification of the French presence in west Africa and particularly Mali started officially in 2013. Then French president Holland dispatched 4000 soldiers with Operation Serval. The purpose of the operation was officially to stop the Islamist extremists from entering Bamako, the capital of Mali. According to Dr. Oumar Mariko, president of the party African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence (Fr. SADI) explained that Mali at that time was developing and succeeding in engaging a national dialogue between religious leaders, various community organizations and political parties such a SADI in order to address the conflicts within the country, including the high levels of corruption of the Malian government serving French interests. Moreover, according to Mariko, a fact omitted by the Western press, the Malian capital — supposedly under siege by Islamist militants, as claimed by the French — was not; the government was in fact able to leave the capital. Nevertheless, French troops came into Africa under the pretext of providing support to the UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSMA) and, of course, fighting jihadists.
“The purpose of the operation was officially to stop the Islamist extremists from entering Bamako.”
France started carrying out airstrikes against the group Al-Qaeda in Maghreb (AQIM) after the group, constituted in part of Tuaregs (a seminomadic and pastoralist people of the Sahara region) and other ‘terrorist elements, moved into southern Mali. Interestingly enough and to the consternation of the Malian military, while fighting terrorism, the French threw their support to the Tuareg separatist movement calling for the independence of northern Mali, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (Fr. MNLA), which they might have seen as a force able to protect its interests. However, it appears this relationship changed when the MNLA developed ties with the Al Qaeda group in Maghreb, providing the very motive for Holland to declare that French troops would not leave until the terrorists were defeated. The French operation was supported at the time by the US of course but also Canada, Britain, Belgium, Germany and Denmark. Moreover, the antiterrorist struggle constrained the activities of UN forces MINUSMA (United Nation Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali) to transform their peace keeping mission into supporting French antiterrorist activities.
The story that ensues is a veritable textbook case for Kwame Nkrumah’s work, and seems to keep on being repeated. So the story goes, in 2012, the president of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, after having been democratically elected was deposed by Malian military officers. Its leader, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, like all the coup officers, was AFRICOM’s man, having been trained at Fort Benning and with the Marine Corp at Quantico. According to the military, the coup had been necessary because president Touré was not effective enough in his dealing with the rebellious Tuaregs in the North, in alliance with jihadist groups. The military leadership who called themselves National Committee for the Recovery of Democracy (NCRD), handed power eventually to Diacounda Traoré, of course a Francophile politician. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), created in 1975, controlled by the French, then legalized the transition of power. This literally reads like a Mafia novel.
“Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, like all the coup officers, was AFRICOM’s man.”
https://blackagendareport.com/french-imperialism-and-neo-colonialism-mali
How French Neo-Colonialism Destabilized Africa’s Sahel, w/ Hannah Armstrong.
https://youtu.be/qPA7vN2GpdA?si=upeewdzhpP2549BA
planing to overthrown government. you will know the plan once they deploy it.
This seems prescient.
Wow, you must be a foreign affairs expert.
The plan should be as simple as, we marched right in, we can march right out. GTFO is a valid plan, it worked in Afghanistan, as chaotic as that exit was. They are officially on notice and I hope they gave the US a tight deadline. If there’s anything to be removed by the US, it can just as easily be left for the junta or destroyed in place.
The“antiwar” and fake peace activist bloggers here as usual, demanding the US to pull out of everywhere, Israel to pull out of Gaza but never ever demanding Russia to pull out of annexed Ukrainian territories and Africa nor China out of annexed Southern Sea.
Bunch of hypocrites.
Geez how long after you ask somebody to leave does it become an invasion? The CIA should be in there fomenting something so that the regime needs us.