US Military Vacates Last Niger Base as Full Withdrawal Nears

Flags of the United States and Niger are flown side by side at the base camp for personnel supporting the construction of Niger Air Base 201 in Agadez, Niger, on April 16, 2018. Carley Petesch/AP Photo

U.S. troops vacated and handed over control of their last major outpost in Niger on Aug. 5, in line with the Nigerian government’s request for American soldiers to leave the country.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced the handoff of Air Base 201 in Agadez in a joint statement with the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Niger on Aug. 5.

The withdrawal from the base occurred a month after U.S. troops handed over control of their other major logistical hub, Air Base 101, in July.

Washington’s military withdrawal from Niger, where units had been posted since the 2010s as part of a regional counter-terrorism effort, is now nearly complete.

Air Base 101 is co-located with the Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey and has hosted both U.S. and French forces.

The U.S. military established Air Base 201 as a second hub for military operations within Niger. Washington covered the construction effort at Air Base 201 from 2016 to 2019, at a cost of more than $100 million.

While Niger had welcomed U.S. and French troops on their soil throughout the 2010s, the relationship began to falter last year after Nigerien military officers forced President Mohamed Bazoum from power and formed a military government in July 2023.

The Nigerien military government ultimately forced French troops to leave the country last fall and began to expand ties with the Russian government, a U.S. geopolitical rival.

The last French soldiers board a military plane during their withdrawal from Niamey, Niger, on Dec. 22, 2023. Boureima Hama/AFP via Getty Images

By December 2023, the new Nigerien government pulled out of another military partnership with the European Union.

By March, the junta also called for U.S. troops to leave the country, and a month later, the U.S. military announced it would pull troops from the country.

The U.S. withdrawal from Niger affects about 1,000 troops.

“Coordination will continue between U.S. and Nigerien armed forces over the coming weeks to ensure the full withdrawal is complete as planned,” the Aug. 5 joint U.S.–Nigerien military statement reads.

The withdrawal from Air Base 201 appears to come ahead of schedule.

“Over the past decade, U.S. troops have trained Niger’s forces and supported partner-led counterterrorism missions against ‘Islamic State’ and al-Qaeda in the region,” the joint statement read.

“The effective cooperation and communication between the U.S. and Nigerien armed forces ensured that this turnover was finished ahead of schedule and without complications.”

The current arrangement calls for the U.S. military to finish its withdrawal by September.

Pentagon officials didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for further details about the U.S. pullout and what if any, presence remains in the country.

Russian military instructors appear to have increased their presence in Niger as the country’s junta severed ties with the United States.

Washington has military partnerships with other African nations, but those relationships continue to shift.

The government of Chad moved to cut its military partnership with the United States shortly after Niger.

In April, the Pentagon announced it would remove the 100 U.S. troops stationed in Chad, but indicated this withdrawal could be temporary as both governments continue to assess the partnership.