In Niger, the US seeks to hold on to its final, greatest counterterrorist outpost in West Africa

WASHINGTON — Ten days right into a coup in Niger, life has grow to be tougher for U.S. forces at a counterterrorism base in a area of West Africa referred to as the world’s epicenter of terrorism.

Flights in and overseas have been curtailed as coup leaders require People to hunt permission for every flight. Gas shortages imply the U.S. commander should log off each time an plane is refueled.

And but, as a number of European international locations evacuate Niger, the Biden administration is exhibiting itself intent on staying. It sees Niger as the US’ final, greatest counterterrorism outpost — and till the coup, a promising democracy — in an unstable area south of the Sahara Desert.

Abandoning it dangers not solely a surge in jihadist teams, however even larger affect by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.

In an opinion piece printed late Thursday in The Washington Publish, democratically elected President Mohammed Bazoum urged the U.S. and others to assist Niger restore its constitutional order. He warned that in any other case the “whole central Sahel area might fall to Russian affect by way of the Wagner Group” and Islamic extremists would make the most of Niger’s instability.

“They are going to ramp up their efforts to focus on our youths with hateful anti-Western indoctrination, turning them towards the very companions who’re serving to us construct a extra hopeful future,” the president wrote.

Whereas some European governments shut embassies and evacuated their residents on army flights this week, as scattered anti-Western protests broke out following the coup, U.S. diplomats despatched residence nonessential workers and a few household this week however stayed on.

“The U.S. Embassy is open. We intend for it to stay open,” State Division spokesman Matthew Miller advised reporters in Washington.

President Joe Biden known as late this week for the Nigerien presidential guards who’re Bazoum to launch him and instantly restore Niger’s “hard-earned democracy.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who praised Niger as a “mannequin of resilience, a mannequin of democracy, and a mannequin of cooperation” when he visited in March, has been calling Niger’s captive president nearly each day, affirming U.S. help for his security and return to energy.

Because the army overthrow stretches into its second week, U.S. officers refuse to formally name it a coup, saying they preserve hope of a return to civilian authorities. Junta leaders introduced late Thursday that they had been severing Niger’s army partnerships with France, the nation’s colonial ruler, however they’ve mentioned nothing about doing the identical concerning the a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} of coaching and help from the US, signaling they might have hope of working with Washington. The U.S. says it suspended army cooperation because the first days of Bazoum’s detention.

The agency U.S. stance in Niger is in distinction to its response to different latest worldwide crises and armed takeovers. That features in close by Sudan, when preventing erupted between two rival generals in April. Then, American diplomats and safety forces had been among the many first foreigners to close down operations in Sudan and fly out.

The 2021 U.S. retreat from Afghanistan, itself an vital territory for U.S. counterterrorism operations, signaled an administration prepared to chop deep in paring its safety obligations to focus consideration on a fundamental problem, from China.

U.S. officers declined to say Thursday how far they’d go to revive Niger’s authorities, together with whether or not they would help any use of pressure by a regional safety bloc referred to as ECOWAS.

“Proper now, we’re centered on diplomacy,” mentioned John Kirby, a spokesman for the Nationwide Safety Council, saying diplomacy “ought to nonetheless be the primary software of alternative.”

Each France and the US have threatened to chop off tens of millions of {dollars} in support except the brand new junta steps down.

However the regular U.S. response of sanctions and isolation when army figures seize energy in West Africa is riskier now given the avidity of the jihadists and Kremlin-allied forces.

John Lechner, a West Africa analyst and creator on the Wagner Group, sensed extra analysts proposing some in-between resolution, such because the U.S. retaining safety ties in change for mere guarantees of a transition again towards democracy.

U.S. personnel, together with members of the 409th Air Expeditionary Group, stay at U.S. counterterror outposts in Niger. That features Air Base 201 in Agadez, a metropolis of greater than 100,000 individuals on the southern fringe of the Sahara, and Air Base 101 in Niamey, Niger’s capital.

People have made Niger their fundamental regional outposts for wide-ranging patrols by armed drones and different counterterror operations towards Islamic extremist actions that through the years have seized territory, massacred civilians and battled overseas armies.

Air Base 201 operates in a sandstorm-whipped, distant space of Niger that serves as a gateway to the Sahara Desert for migrants and merchants. In sandstorms, U.S. army personnel put on goggles and face masks because the gritty sky turns pink or black.

In warmth that may attain effectively over 100 levels Fahrenheit (38 levels Celsius), U.S. army personnel of their free time have constructed lecture rooms for native colleges, created weekly English-language dialogue teams, helped villagers discover a misplaced 2-year-old woman in a nighttime desert search, challenged an area soccer staff to a match, supplied residents “American snacks” for Worldwide Ladies’s Day and delivered pencils, prayer mats, cleaning soap and different support to communities in what one sergeant described as “the unforgiving setting of Africa.”

A civilian aviation discover this week warned that refueling was being restricted at Agadez because the coup, with each single gassing up requiring approval from the 409th’s commander.

Niger’s junta closed the nation’s airspace on July 27. Since then, the U.S. authorities has negotiated entry for flights on a case-by-case foundation, a U.S. official who was not licensed to talk publicly mentioned on the situation of anonymity.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder mentioned most U.S. forces in Niger are staying inside their army bases and will not be conducting coaching workout routines as they usually would.

People have invested years and a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} in coaching Nigerien forces.

In 2018, fighters loyal to the Islamic State group ambushed and killed 4 American service members, 4 Nigeriens and an interpreter.

West Africa recorded over 1,800 extremist assaults within the first six months of this yr, which killed almost 4,600 individuals, in accordance with ECOWAS.

The Islamic extremist group Boko Haram operates in neighboring Nigeria and Chad. Alongside Niger’s borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, the Islamic State within the Higher Sahara and al-Qaida affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin pose larger threats.

“Associates, franchises and branches of IS and AQ are in all probability most strong in that a part of the world, exterior of Afghanistan. So, you understand, there’s quite a bit at stake,” mentioned Colin Clarke, analysis director at The Soufan Group safety and intelligence consultancy.

If the coup in Niger sticks, it’ll alter what has been U.S. safety forces’ greatest partnership within the area and create momentum for these forces to scale back their presence. Particularly after any U.S. army drawdown, home turmoil from the coup might draw Niger’s troops away from the nation’s borders, permitting jihadist teams to make additional inroads into Niger.

Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries already are a pressure in neighboring Mali and the close by Central African Republic, supporting and defending anti-Western governments. Wagner forces often take a share of nations’ mineral assets in return. In Niger, the nation’s notable useful resource is high-grade uranium ore.

Wagner forces are notoriously unhealthy at preventing Islamic extremists, with scorched-earth ways that solely draw civilians to the jihadists’ facet, Clarke mentioned.

And when Wagner is finished extracting gold and different assets from a rustic, “they’re out, proper? And the state of affairs is then fourfold worse, and who’s there to scrub it up?” he mentioned.

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Mednick reported from Niamey, Niger, and Anna from Nairobi, Kenya. Related Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Tara Copp contributed to this report.

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