Niger and Nuclear Terrorism

Protesters wave Nigerien and Russian flags as they gather during a rally in support of Niger's junta in Niamey on July 30, 2023. AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

Niger, a country in the Sahel region of Africa, is kicking out about 1,000 U.S. troops, collaborating with Russia, and allegedly planning to sell uranium to Iran.

Our men and women in uniform were conducting counterterrorism operations in Niger from relatively new U.S. military bases, Airbase 101 and 201. The United States flew drones from these locations to surveil and probably hit terrorists throughout West and North Africa. Airbase 201 cost over $100 million and only became operational in 2018. The United States spent over $500 million building Niger’s counterterrorism forces with training, arms, and equipment.

Now, Niger’s junta wants to pull the rug out and hand it all to Russia and Iran, which are far more interested in extracting resources like uranium, gold, and diamonds than in counterterrorism. In fact, Russia and Iran are two of the world’s worst state sponsors of terrorism—including nuclear terrorism—globally.

Before the coup, Niger’s democratically elected government, led by Mohamed Bazoum, supported U.S. and French efforts, and for good reason. According to the U.S. State Department, “Terrorist groups active in Niger include ISIS-Sahel (formerly known as ISIS-GS), Boko Haram, ISIS terrorist group-West Africa (ISIS-WA), and al-Qa’ida affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM).” They carried out 180 attacks in 2022 alone.

Then in July 2023, when Niger’s military should have been fighting terrorists, they instead locked up the elected president. The United States and France apparently had no plan, or did not execute it, to defend the president and years of investment in Niger’s military. Neither Nigeria nor the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) took the necessary and timely military measures to defeat the coup.

That was the opportunity for Russia and Iran to move in decisively—and the springboard for first ejecting French forces and now ejecting the United States. Then, as with similar coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, Russia replaced the United States as Niger’s main defense partner.

Niger’s junta made visits to Moscow and Tehran, which are state sponsors of terrorism. The junta now wants to sell uranium to Iran, which has an illegal nuclear weapons program aimed at the United States and our allies, including Israel.

Iran supports terrorism through its proxy groups, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. It has tolerated the al-Qaeda terrorist group, which sought nuclear weapons. The mullahs in Iran, who rule the country as a theocracy, are violently anti-semitic and the source of the problems today in Gaza, the Red Sea, and Lebanon. The junta believes it has a right to claim to fight terrorism and then collaborate with the world’s worst sponsors of terrorism. The junta is dead wrong.

Russia is currently threatening nuclear war against the United States and Europe. China and Iran are hacking into U.S. civilian water supplies. And the junta in Niger is allegedly trying to sell Iran uranium that could eventually be used in a nuclear weapon wielded by a terrorist against a U.S. city. Niger should be put on notice. If that happens, Niger will be held responsible. The entire country is responsible for reining in its rogue leaders before it is too late.

While the United States has bent over backward to assure countries around the world that “we are not asking that they take sides” against Russia, China, or Iran, in hindsight, that was a mistake. A better message would be zero tolerance for engaging the “Axis of Evil” countries, backed up by incentives and disincentives sufficient to get the job done.

When U.S. officials raised Niger’s unseemly trajectory with the junta in the capital city, Niamey, those authorities referenced their sovereignty, the failure of the United States and France to defeat terrorism in their country, and their right to choose their own defense partners. The hypocrisy of this reasoning requires some explanation.

If the junta really prioritized combating terrorists, they would continue to welcome U.S. and French forces, without whom they lack the best surveillance and strike capabilities and thousands of additional crack troops.

The junta wept crocodile tears for the “condescending” manner in which France and the United States supposedly treated them, which was their excuse for kicking out forces meant to help protect Niger and the world from terrorists. From an ethical perspective, we should be condescending to thugs, criminals, terrorists, tin-pot dictators, Kremlinites, extremist mullahs, totalitarians, and the juntas who sign military partnerships with Axis of Evil countries. They counter the will of the people as expressed in real democratic votes through fair and open elections, informed by freedom of the press. Niger and its new rogue allies have none of this.

The junta’s claimed sovereignty is based on nothing more than their thuggish lockup of the legitimate president of the country. To represent a sovereign nation as the United Nations provides, the junta must abide by the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, passed in 1948. This document is one of the most important in history, yet one wonders if the junta has ever read it. If so, they are in wilful violation of its most basic precepts, which are the foundation for claiming sovereignty.

Sovereignty does not come from the gun, as Axis of Evil countries believe. A dictatorship is not a legitimate place from which to transact for one’s own interests. Sovereignty comes from a true representation of the will of the people—the nation. As soon as one abrogates the will of the people through a coup or other such violence, one abrogates and extinguishes any claim to sovereignty.

Thus, sovereignty in Niger has returned to the people at the local level, where vestiges of democracy remain. Until they wake up and remove the junta, Niger’s sovereignty will continue to be imprisoned, along with its elected leader. And until that time, the United States, our allies, and the people of Niger have a responsibility to protect ourselves from all the terrorists in that country, including the junta.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.