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WHY HAS NIGER DECLARED US MILITARY PRESENCE IN ITS TERRITORY ILLEGAL?
 
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Pavan Kulkarni
March 19, 2024
Peoples Dispatch
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_ Only months after forcing its former colonizer France to withdraw
its troops, Niger, West Africa’s largest country, has said the
presence of US troops is illegal. _

A Boeing C-17 Globemaster III takes off June 19th, 2021 at Air Base
201 in Niger. By U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jan K.
Valle,

 

Niger declared the US military deployment in its territory
“illegal” on Saturday, March 16, after a US delegation allegedly
threatened “retaliation” against the largest country in West
Africa for its ties with Russia and Iran.

Confronted with the prospect of losing three strategically crucial
military bases, including one of the world’s largest drone bases in
the central Nigerien city of Agadez on which it has spent a quarter
billion dollars
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the US is yet to give a statement in response. A press conference that
was scheduled on Sunday at the US embassy in Niger’s capital Niamey
— outside which protesters had gathered on Saturday
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denounce American interference — was canceled
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“We are in touch” with Niger’s government “and will provide
further updates as warranted,” is all that the US State
Department’s Spokesperson Matthew Miller has been able to muster so
far in response, via a post on his X
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The lack of response well over three days after its military presence
was declared illegal betrays a state of surprise over this action of
Niger’s transitional military government, the National Council for
the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP).

In December, Niger’s former colonizer France was forced to withdraw
all its troops from the country. This followed an order by the CNSP,
which was formed in late-July 2023 after the ouster of the then
president, Mohamed Bazoum.

Mass demonstrations welcomed the military coup against Bazoum, who had
reinforced his domestic image as a French puppet by cracking down on
protests demanding the withdrawal of the French troops.

General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the then chief of the Presidential
guard who had led the coup, went on to form the CNSP with popular
support including from the trade unions and the protest movement
against French presence.

France initially refused to comply when the CNSP terminated Niger’s
military agreements with it in August and ordered the withdrawal of
its troops. However, after a tense standoff for over a month, during
which increasingly angry protests became an almost daily feature
outside the French base and its embassy, France stood down in
September, and withdrew its troops by December. The smaller
deployments of other EU countries also withdrew on the heels of
France.

France’s attempt to mobilize the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) into a war against Niger failed to materialize. Its
has left the bloc in an existential crisis, facing the prospect of
losing half of its land area after Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger
announced their withdrawal in January 2024.

Distancing itself from the tensions in the capital city during the
stand-off with France, the US, which had about 1,100 troops in Niger
at the time, repositioned some of its assets and troops from Airbase
101 in Niamey over 900 kilometers away to Airbase 201 in Agadez in
September.

“WE’VE INVESTED HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS INTO BASES
THERE”

Sprawling over an area of 25 sq. km, Airbase 201, operational since
2019, is the largest ever construction undertaken by the US Air Force
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a cost of USD 110 million. Its maintenance costs approximately USD 30
million annually. Since the start of construction in 2016, the US has
spent USD 250 million on this base, _The Intercept_ reported
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September.

With C17 transport planes and a fleet of drones including unmanned
combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs)
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as the MQ-9 Reaper, it is the second largest US base in Africa after
the one in Djibouti.

Soon after the ouster of Bazoum, the US had readied a contingency plan
to evacuate this base. However, “the goal is to stay” in both the
bases — in Niamey as well as in Agadez — General James Hecker,
USAF commander for Europe and Africa, had explained
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August.

Apart from the Pentagon-run airbase 101 in Niger’s southwest and 201
in its central region, the CIA has also been running another base
further to the northeast in the small oasis town of Dirkou. The
existence of such a base was a secret until it was exposed in 2018.

“All I know is they’re American,” a tight-lipped Bazoum, who was
the interior minister of the regime in 2018, had told
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asked about this base. “It’s always good. If people see things
like that, they’ll be scared,” Boubakar Jerome, the then mayor of
the town with a population of a few thousands added in his comment,
casually betraying how the regime entertained foreign military
presence to keep its own population in fear.

When this regime was ousted in July 2023, with Bazoum at its helm as
the President since 2021, much was at stake for the US. Until October,
it had not even declared his removal and the takeover by the CNSP as a
‘coup’, because “we don’t want to see that partnership go,”
the US Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told a press
conference in August
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“We’ve invested, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars into
bases there.”

Barely two months after it finally designated the CNSP’s takeover as
a coup in October, which kicked in laws restricting aid and military
support to Niger, Molly Phee, the US Assistant Secretary of State for
African Affairs, offered to restore both to Niger.

After meeting with the CNSP-appointed ministers in December, by when
the size of US deployment was reduced from 1,100 to 648
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Phee told a press conference, “I have made clear to the CNSP that we
want to be a good partner again, but the CNSP has to be a good partner
to the United States.”

Niger, it seemed, was not particularly keen on the US partnership.
Like in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, the presence of Western
troops in Niger for nearly a decade only saw an increase in the spread
of violence by Islamist insurgencies they were ostensibly deployed to
fight, after spawning them across the Sahel by destroying Libya in
2011.

The West continues to pressure the transitional military governments
in these countries to hold elections. However, the reality on the
ground is that the majority of the people will be left out of the
voting process because these states have lost control of vast
territories to insurgencies over the last decade under the security
ambit of the Western troops. France is even accused of providing
support to these very groups after being ordered out of these
countries.

Under the circumstances, Mali, Burkina Faso and
Niger — which came together to form the Alliance of Sahel States
(AES)
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September — are exploring alternative security relations,
including with Russia.

It is a very popular idea, evidenced in the frequent occasions during
the anti-French protests when Russian flags were waived with the
Nigerien tricolor, often alongside the flags of other BRICS countries.

However, Molly Phee, who flew back to Niger on March 12 with a
delegation including Michael Langley, the commander general of US
Africa Command (AFRICOM), allegedly threatened “retaliation”
against Niger in a meeting with the CNSP-appointed ministers.

To justify this threat of aggression, Phee also falsely accused Niger
of entering into a secret agreement with Iran to supply it with
Uranium, the CNSP spokesperson, Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane said in
a speech [[link removed]] televised on
Saturday.

“It is widely known that the exploitation of Niger’s Uranium is
completely controlled by France,” he said, condemning Phee’s
accusation as a lie “reminiscent” of the weapons-of-mass
destruction claim peddled ahead of the Iraq war. “The international
community still remembers the false evidence brandished by” the US
“before the Security Council to justify American aggression” on
Iraq, he added.

“US HAD UNILATERALLY IMPOSED ITS MILITARY ON NIGER”

Reiterating that Niger deals with Russia “state-to-state, in
accordance with the military cooperation agreements signed with the
previous government,” Abdramane went on to insist that it is the
presence of the US troops and bases in Niger that is “illegal”.

“[T]hrough a simple verbal note (in 2012)… the American side
unilaterally imposed on Niger an agreement on the status of United
States personnel and civilian employees of the American Department of
Defense,” he said.

Describing this agreement as “profoundly unfair” and against
“the aspirations and interests of the Nigerien people”, he
announced that this agreement stands revoked “with immediate
effect.”

_PEOPLES DISPATCH, formerly The Dawn News, is an international media
project with the mission of bringing to you voices from people’s
movements and organizations across the globe. Since its establishment
three years ago, it has sought to ensure that the coverage of news
from around the world is not restricted to the rhetoric of politicians
and the fortunes of big companies but encompasses the richness and
diversity of mobilizations from around the world._

_Peoples Dispatch also seeks to bring to you breaking news from a
perspective widely different from that of the mainstream media.  We
invite people’s movements and political organizations everywhere to
send us information and news from their countries. You can reach us
at [email protected]_

* Niger
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* France
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* Uranium
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* U.S. military bases
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