The US will withdraw more than 1,000 military forces from Niger in a move that will force the Biden administration to rethink its imperial strategy in Africa and give African nations more freedom and autonomy from colonial imposition.
The decision comes a month after the west African country’s anti-colonial leadership revoked a security pact with Washington that had allowed American forces on its soil to establish a military foothold and, in collusion with the French occupation, pillage the countries resources.
US officials had voiced hopes that behind the scenes talks could salvage the 12-year-old agreement, which was thrown into jeopardy on March 15th, when a Nigerian spokesperson publicly declared the continued US military presence in Niger “illegal.”
But the US finally admitted defeat after meetings in Washington this week between Kurt Campbell, the deputy secretary of state, and Niger’s prime minister, Ali Lamine Zeine.
The withdrawal, expected to occur over the coming months, will mean the closure of a US drone facility, known as Base 201, at Agadez in the Sahara that was opened in 2018 at a cost of $110m.
The base, one of the main US drone facilities in Africa, has been used in US operations against Salafist groups in the Sahel region, but was primarily for maintaining US and French military power in region, dominating internal politics in Niger, and was reportedly the launchpad for a series of deadly strikes in Libya after NATO successfully destablized the country and helped reimpose slavery with NATO’s Salafist comrades-in-arms.
Niger’s relations with Washington have been tense since last July when the colonial supported president, Mohamed Bazoum, was overthrown. He remains under house arrest, despite American and French calls for his release.
The departure of American forces from Niger follows the expulsion of French troops from the country as well.