It is quite a symbol of the shift underway in the Sahel. Russian soldiers have settled in an air base in Niger housing the last American troops, in the capital Niamey, American Defense Minister Lloyd Austin said on Thursday. An announcement which follows pressing demands from the Nigerien military junta, resulting from a coup d’état perpetrated on July 26, 2023, which has demanded in recent weeks that the United States withdraw its last military forces from the country.
Asked about this during a press conference on Thursday, Lloyd Austin indicated that the Russian deployment did not pose a “significant problem (…) in terms of protecting our forces”. “Air Base 101, where our forces are located, is a Niger Air Force base that is located next to the international airport in the capital. The Russians are in a separate building and do not have access to US forces or our equipment,” he said at a conference in Hawaii.
The Russian deployment in the air base, located in the capital Niamey, places Russian and American soldiers in a close situation, at the very time when Washington and Moscow are in fierce disagreement over the war in Ukraine, and when the States- United States have validated a new plan to support the Ukrainian army worth more than 61 billion dollars. Asked at a press briefing in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov neither confirmed nor denied the Russian presence in the base, simply indicating that Moscow was developing its relations with African countries in all areas, including military.
Former key partner of the United States
Niger’s military regime denounced the military cooperation agreement in force with the United States in March, believing that it had been “unilaterally imposed” by Washington and that the American presence was now “illegal”. Until last summer’s coup, Niger was in fact a key partner of the American army in the anti-jihadist fight in the Sahel. Washington has invested several hundred million dollars to train Nigerien forces. But also to develop the military base in Agadez, in the north of Niger, where they notably had a large drone base, built for around 100 million dollars.
Faced with the junta’s request, in mid-April, the United States finally agreed to withdraw from the country its nearly 1,000 remaining soldiers on Niger soil. Discussions between the two countries are still ongoing regarding the modalities of this withdrawal, the head of the American military command for Africa said last week.
After the coup d’état which overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum, the Nigerien military junta also quickly demanded the departure of soldiers from the former French colonial power, particularly targeted by the new regime. It has moved closer to Russia, like neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, also run by the military and facing jihadist violence, perpetrated by groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. In April, Russian instructors arrived in Niamey as the country’s authorities received their first delivery of Russian military equipment.