Niger junta announces end to military relationship with United States

[irisblue]

Source: WashingtonPost

Snip-"DAKAR, Senegal — The military junta ruling Niger — which until last year was seen as a major ally of the United States in West Africa — announced Saturday on state television that it was ending its military relationship with the United States.

The announcement by a spokesman for the junta government, which overthrew Niger’s democratically elected president last year, came directly on the heels of a visit to the capital Niamey by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee, the State Department’s top official for African affairs, and Gen. Michael E. Langley, who heads U.S. military operations in Africa. That mission was among diplomatic efforts by the United States to find ways to work with military governments in the region, where violence wrought by Islamist extremists has, in recent years, rapidly escalated.

But in the statement read on television, Amadou Abdramane, the junta’s spokesman, said the Nigerien government “denounced with force the condescending attitude” of the head of the recent U.S. delegation, which he said had undermined the long relationship between the two countries. The government, he said, was “denouncing with immediate effect” the accord between Niger and the U.S. military, along with civilians working for the Defense Department."

snip-"
More than 1,000 U.S. soldiers are stationed in Niger, according to the military, and the United States operates a drone base in the country’s north that officials say is vital for surveillance of extremist groups in the Sahel region, which runs across Africa just below the Sahara desert. "





Gift article

https://wapo.st/48XZPvx



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/16/niger-junta-end-us-military/

[padah513]

1. Of course they did. They developed military ties with Russia

Guess their sons will be dying in Ukraine next.

[2naSalit]

2. More than likely.

Wagner has been working that area for years prior to the war on Ukraine.

But Ukrainian ops are ongoing on that continent too. It's quickly becoming a world war.