Air Base 201 in Niger was the largest construction project in U.S. Air Force history — a massive drone center that cost American taxpayers $280 million. Thanks to a change in Nigerian leadership, Americans may be forced to give up this investment forever.
Niger’s new nationalist government, which took power in a coup last year, has sought to get rid of foreign military presence in the country. Over the weekend, Nigerian Colonel Amadou Abdramane ordered US troops to abandon Air Base 201, declaring on television that “the American presence in the territory of the Republic of Niger is illegal”.
The Biden administration appears to be stalling. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh and State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel both said the United States is seeking “clarification” about the Nigerian government’s comments. (What exactly is so unclear about “the American presence… is illegal”?)
The final straw appears to have been a meeting between American and Nigerian officials last week. According to U.S. Under Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee, she criticized a Niger deal to sell uranium to Iran, growing Niger-Russian military ties and Niger’s failure to return to democracy. The Wall Street Journal.
After the meeting, Abdramane went on television to condemn the “condescending attitude” of the Biden administration.
“Niger regrets the intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign people of Niger the right to choose their partners and forms of partnership capable of truly helping them in the fight against terrorism,” he said.
The US military is ostensibly in West Africa to help local governments fight Islamic insurgents, such as Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and Boko Haram. But the problem is there it just got worse:TThe US State Department, which reported only nine terrorist attacks across Africa in 2002 and 2003, recorded 2,737 incidents in Burkina Faso, Mali and western Niger alone in 2022.
The American presence in Niger, unknown to most Americans, has been a disaster for years. In 2017, the Islamic State ambushed and killed four U.S. Green Berets. The US Army scolded several commanders for improperly preparing troops and lying about their mission. In 2022, local bandits a van robbed carrying with him $40,000 in American taxpayer money, intended to pay local employees, in broad daylight just outside Air Base 201.
Many West African countries are former French colonies, and France has also used counter-terrorism missions to maintain its influence over the region it calls “French Africa.”
Resentment of American e French presence The situation exploded in 2020, when West Africa suffered a series of military coups, bringing anti-Western governments to power. Ironically, many of the coup plotters, including Nigerian officials, had also received US military training before turning against their American supporters.
One such officer, General Abdourahmane Tchiani, attributed his decision to overthrow Niger’s elected government to the failure of US military aid.
“The current approach to security has failed to secure our country, despite the heavy sacrifices made by Nigerians and the appreciable and appreciated support of our external partners,” he said in a speech shortly after taking power. “No, the results were not up to par [to] our expectations and we can no longer continue with the same approaches proposed to date.”