US to withdraw military personnel from Niger, source says
The United States will withdraw its troops from Niger, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters late on Friday, adding an agreement was reached between U.S Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Niger's leadership, Azernews reports.
There were a little over 1,000 U.S. troops in Niger as of last year, where the U.S. military operated out of two bases, including a drone base known as Air Base 201 built near Agadez in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million.
Since 2018, the base has been used to target Islamic State militants and Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, an al Qaeda affiliate, in the Sahel region.
Last year, Niger's army seized power in a coup. Until the coup, Niger had remained a key security partner of the United States and France.
In the coming days, there will be conversations about how that drawdown of troops will look, the source told Reuters, asking not to identified.
The source said there would still be diplomatic and economic relationships between the U.S. and Niger despite this step.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Here we are to serve you with news right now. It does not cost much, but worth your attention.
Choose to support open, independent, quality journalism and subscribe on a monthly basis.
By subscribing to our online newspaper, you can have full digital access to all news, analysis, and much more.
You can also follow AzerNEWS on Twitter @AzerNewsAz or Facebook @AzerNewsNewspaper
Thank you!