The Secretary of Defense of the United States, Lloyd Austin, has confirmed that Russian military personnel have entered an air base in Niger that houses North American forces, after the Nigerian military junta decided at the end of last month to expel the 1,000 US soldiers deployed. in the country.
A senior US defense official, quoted by Reuters on condition of anonymity, has confirmed that Russian troops are present, but not mixed, with US forces at Air Base 101, located next to Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, the capital of Niger. In addition, the same source has confirmed that the Nigerian authorities had informed President Joe Biden’s administration that some 60 Russian soldiers would be in Niger, but this figure could not be verified.
The move of the Russian military puts American and Russian troops in close proximity at a time when the two countries’ military and diplomatic rivalry is increasingly bitter due to the conflict in Ukraine.
It also raises questions about the fate of US facilities in the country after announcing a gradual withdrawal at the end of last month. However, Austin, at a news conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, downplayed any risk to US troops or the possibility that Russian troops could get close to US military hardware. “The Russians are in a separate compound and do not have access to American forces or our materiel. I always focus on the safety and security of our troops (…). But right now, I don’t see a significant problem here in terms of protecting our forces.”
Russia, however, is not hiding. In a press conference given this Friday by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, he declared that Moscow is “developing ties with several African countries in all areas, including the military.” He has also stated that the interests of Russia-Niger relations are bidirectional, which is why they will continue to develop the link with African states.
Before the military coup in July last year, Niger had been a key partner in the United States’ fight against the ISIL (ISIS) group and its Al Qaeda affiliates in Africa’s Sahel region, which is currently experiencing a surge in terrorist violence. In 2016, 800 deaths were recorded in attacks, while in 2021 the figure rose to 6,000 deaths.
Since the beginning of US operations in the region, Washington has invested millions of dollars in Air Base 201, more than 900 kilometers from the capital of Niger and a fundamental enclave for US anti-terrorist operations in the Sahel. He has also invested hundreds of millions of dollars in training the country’s army, which is now calling for his ouster. In addition to the imminent departure from Niger, US forces have also left Chad in recent days.
It seems that the expulsion of Western military forces in the Sahel region is the general trend among the G5 Sahel countries -Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger-, since in 2022, the French army was expelled from Mali, a year after Burkina Faso and at the end of 2023 from Niger.
At the same time that Western military forces have been expelled from the African continent, Russia has strengthened relations with African nations in the Sahel, presenting Moscow as a friendly country with no colonial baggage on the continent. Mali, for example, has become one of Russia’s closest African allies in recent years, with the Wagner Group mercenary force deployed there to fight rebel groups.
