How the U.S. Military Cultivated — and Then Lost — a Key African Ally

A timeline of key events in the lead-up to the U.S. troop withdrawal on Monday from the West African country of Niger.

By Rachel Chason

August 5, 2024 at 1:44 p.m. EDT

The U.S. military on Monday withdrew from its base near Agadez, Niger, marking the end of a security relationship with this West African nation that has lasted more than two decades. At its peak, the mission included 1,100 service members split mostly between bases in Niamey, the capital, and outside Agadez. The withdrawal follows months of fruitless negotiations with Niger’s military government, which seized power in a coup a year ago. It marks a strategic defeat for the United States at a moment when the Islamist extremist threat in the region is growing and Russia’s influence is rising.

Here are some of the key moments in the U.S. involvement in the region:

2002

In the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration launched its “war on terror,” trying to stop terrorism at its roots. The Pan Sahel Initiative, launched in 2002, included training and equipping forces in Niger, Mali, Chad and Mauritania. The focus in the Sahel region, which stretches across the continent below the Sahara desert, was more related to what the United States identified as potential drivers of extremism — including poor governance, vast spaces and poverty — than existing threats. At the time, tourism was a substantive driver of the region’s economy, with visitors flocking to Timbuktu in Mali and passing through Agadez in Niger on their way to tours of the Sahara.

2011

The United States was part of the NATO-led offensive that killed Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi, ultimately contributing to the collapse of the Libyan state and a flood of arms into the region. Experts say the chaos in the wake of Gaddafi’s death helped lay the groundwork for an uprising by Tuareg nationalists, whose rebellions Gaddafi had in the past helped mediate.

2012

Mali, which for the previous two decades had been a model of democracy in the region and a top recipient of Western support, collapsed. Soldiers seized power in a coup in the capital, and Tuareg separatists and a variety of Islamist extremists, including groups linked to al-Qaeda, took control of vast swaths of the country’s north. The seizure of numerous cities — including historic Timbuktu — by militants who enforced an extreme version of Islamic law prompted an international outcry and intervention by the French military.

2013

Then-President Barack Obama sent a letter to Congress announcing that the Pentagon would deploy 40 troops to Niger, bringing the total number of American military personnel in Niger to about 100. Defense officials said the troops were deployed to open a drone base in Niamey that would focus on intelligence gathering, including to help the French forces operating in Mali, where it had decided not to deploy American soldiers.

2017

Four U.S. Special Forces troops, along with five Nigerien soldiers, were killed in an ambush by militants associated with an Islamic State affiliate. The ambush, which became known by the name of the village where it happened — Tongo Tongo — prompted inquiries by Congress and the Defense Department, and it triggered a backlash in Washington, where many lawmakers said they did not have a clear sense of the size or scope of the mission in Niger. It also sparked a political controversy, when the widow of one of the soldiers killed said then-President Donald Trump appeared to forget her husband’s name and said that the soldier knew “what he was signing up for.”

Directives for U.S. troops changed after Tongo Tongo, Alan Van Saun, a company commander in a Special Forces battalion from summer 2017 to February 2018, previously told The Washington Post. U.S. soldiers had been patrolling with Nigerien soldiers on “kill and capture” missions, providing intelligence about armed groups as well as medical and logistical support to Nigerien troops. After the ambush, he said, they were largely constrained to providing support from the bases.

2019

The nine-square-mile Air Base 201, which cost more than $100 million to build, opened just outside Agadez, a city on the southern edge of the Sahara known as a hub for migration. U.S. officials said the base became vital for understanding the movements of extremists in North and Western Africa. Gen. Michael E. Langley, who heads U.S. military operations in Africa, warned in a previous interview that losing the base would be “impactful” for counterterrorism operations. “If we can’t see, we can’t sense,” he said.

In Niger, the military was combating militants associated with Boko Haram and its offshoots around Lake Chad, and Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) and Islamic State-Sahel in the region bordering Mali and Burkina Faso.

July 2023

Nigerien military officers seized power in a coup d’état, ousting the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum. Within weeks, they asked the 1,500 or so French troops that had been stationed in the country to leave. The United States paused security assistance, as required by U.S. law after a coup, and officials began negotiating to get Niger back on a democratic path.

March 2024

In a late-night news conference, a spokesman for Niger’s government — the National Council for Safeguarding the Homeland — declared the American military presence “illegal.” Nigerien officials said that followed a meeting in which they said a top U.S. official was “condescending” and tried to dictate which countries Niger could partner with. The United States has disputed that characterization and said Niger was offered “a choice, not an ultimatum.”

August 2024

The final 130 service members stationed at Air Base 201 loaded into four C-17s and flew out. American and Nigerien officials signed paperwork turning over the base, marking the official end to the U.S. mission in what had long been its top ally in the region.