BIDEN RESPONDS TO THE COLLAPSE OF U.S. COUNTERTERRORISM STRATEGY IN NIGER

For two months after the coup in Niger on July 26, 2023, the Biden administration refrained from calling or chose not to call it a "coup" because that would have triggered American legislation that would have required it to suspend security cooperation and most other forms of assistance to the junta. It hoped that by maintaining relations with the junta, it could make a deal with them to permit 1,100 US troops to remain at two Nigerien military bases (at Niamey and the drone operation facility constructed by the United States at a cost of some $110 million at Agadez).On October 10, 2023, after two months of frustration, the Biden administration declared that there had been a coup and the legislation took effect. To date, the junta has not taken any action regarding the presence of US troops. Some U.S. personnel have been withdrawn from Niger and the remaining troops have been consolidated in Agadez. They continue to conduct drone surveillance and reconnaissance flights, but only to monitor threats to their own security, which means they are no longer conducting useful counterterrorism operations in the Sahel.However, the Biden administration has not given up on its strategy of relying on military force to create security, build democratic institutions, and establish political stability in the Sahel and other parts of Africa. Instead, it has decided to doubled down on this strategy by escalating or expanding US military operations in Africa and strengthening US security relationships or cooperation with political leaders and military officers in Nigeria (current chair of ECOWAS), Ghana, Senegal, Chad, and other key African partners or proxies. And it keeps trying to reach an agreement with the junta that will allow it to keep American troops based in the country and to resume military cooperation with Niger.At the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on "Instability in the Sahel and West Africa: Implications for U.S. Policy," on October 24, 2023, Phee declared that there's also a significant risk that violent extremist organizations might expand their influence or capabilities in the region. "The coups that have occurred recently in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and now Niger," she said, "illustrate the democratic regression that threatens not only the people of the Sahel but their neighbors and our partners in coastal west Africa."