In this image by the US Air Force, Major General Kenneth P. Ekman speaks in front of a Welcome to Niamey sign depicting US military vehicles at Air Base 101 in Niger. AP
Air Force Major General Kenneth Ekman said in an interview that a number of small teams of 10-20 US troops, including special operations forces, have moved to other countries in West Africa. But the bulk of the forces will go, at least initially, to Europe.
Niger's ouster of American troops following a coup last year has broad ramifications for the US because it is forcing troops to abandon the critical drone base that was used for counterterrorism missions in the Sahel.
Ekman and other US military leaders have said other West African nations want to work with the US and may be open to an expanded American presence. He did not detail the locations, but other U.S. officials have pointed to the Ivory Coast and Ghana as examples.
Ekman, who serves as the director for strategy at US Africa Command, is leading the US military withdrawal from the small base at the airport in Niger's capital of Niamey and from the larger counterterrorism base in the city of Agadez. He said there will be a ceremony Sunday marking the completed pullout from the airport base, and then those final 100 troops and the last C-17 transport aircraft will depart.
Speaking to reporters from The Associated Press and Reuters from the US embassy in Niamey, Ekman said that while portable buildings and vehicles that are no longer useful will be left behind, a lot of larger equipment will be pulled out. For example, he said 18 4,000-pound (1,800-kilogram) generators worth more than $1 million each will be taken out of Agadez.
Unlike the withdrawal from Afghanistan, he said the US is not destroying equipment or facilities as it leaves.
“Our goal in the execution is, leave things in as good a state as possible,” he said. “If we went out and left it a wreck or we went out spitefully, or if we destroyed things as we went, we’d be foreclosing options” for future security relations.
Niger’s ruling junta ordered US forces out of the country in the wake of last July’s ouster of the country’s democratically elected president by mutinous soldiers. French forces had also been asked to leave as the junta turned to the Russian mercenary group Wagner for security assistance.
Washington officially designated the military takeover as a coup in October, triggering US laws restricting military support and aid.
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