According to a high-ranking US military official quoted by Reuters, there was no mixing of the two contingents at the 101st Air Base near Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, the capital of Niger, and the Russians were placed in a separate hangar.
Russian media reported on the transfer of Russian soldiers to Niger in April.
The Russian Africa Corps is to establish relations in the country and help train Niger’s army, she wrote. But Russia is mainly supposed to protect the new Niger leadership that emerged from the coup. “They fear an attack from the air. Russia is a country that can provide them with air defense, that is its role,” said an expert on the Sahel region quoted by the Financial Times.
Operating from the same base at a time of heightened military and diplomatic rivalry between Moscow and Washington over Russia’s armed aggression in Ukraine raises questions, including the fate of American military installations in the country after the withdrawal of American troops.
“The situation is not ideal, but it is manageable in the short term,” a US official told Reuters.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also downplayed any risk to US troops or the likelihood that Russian troops could get close to US military equipment.
“The Russians are in a separate compound and they don’t have access to American troops or our equipment,” Austin said at a news conference in Honolulu. “I’m always focused on the safety and security of our troops … But right now, I don’t see any significant issue here in terms of protecting our forces,” he added.
The West is withdrawing from several African countries
The US and its allies have been forced to move their troops from a number of African countries after coups that brought to power groups eager to distance themselves from Western governments. In addition to the planned departure from Niger, US troops have also left Chad in recent days, while French troops have been expelled from Mali and Burkina Faso, Reuters notes.
Shortly after the coup in Niger, the United States already moved part of its contingent from the 101st base to Air Base 201 in central Niger, which it built at a cost of more than $100 million. Since 2018, it has been used for attacks against fighters of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda branch Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen (JNIM) using armed drones.
Washington is concerned about Islamic militants in the Sahel region who may expand without the presence of US forces and intelligence capabilities.
American troops withdraw from Niger
Foreign
