U.S. military strategy in Africa must therefore gradually shift from counterterrorism to the center of gravity of the great powers' game. To accelerate the pace of strategic change, the Biden administration has proposed a "10-year conflict prevention and stability promotion strategy" for the West African coastal region
On April 25, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that the country will withdraw most of its troops from Niger.
Currently, the United States has more than 1,000 tsoldiers in Niger but, according to the Associated Press, the U.S. is trying to reach an agreement with the Niger government to maintain some military presence in the country.
After the 9/11 incident, the main consideration of U.S. military deployment in Africa is to combat terrorist forces, and after the unrest in West Asia and North Africa in 2011, terrorists moved to the Sahel region to proliferate.
Photo U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM)
The United States and Europe have gradually increased their counterterrorism investments in the region, and the Sahel region and Somalia have become the two main regions where the United States has concentrated its military resources in Africa.
In recent years, Niger has been an important U.S. security partner in the Sahel region. In 2015, the United States signed a military cooperation agreement with Niger to build the largest U.S. drone base in West Africa in the central Nigerian city of Agadez, at a cost of more than $100 million, in the name of counterterrorism.
In addition, the U.S. has a base and a deploy small mobile units in Niamey, Nigeria's capital, and three other cities. The number of U.S. military personnel in Niamey represents about one-fifth of the military presence in Africa.
Some Chinese military commentators believe that the focus of the U.S. military disposition in Africa may accelerate the transfer of troops to the West African coastal region.
This is because U.S. officials believe that Russia and China as well as Sino-Chinese and Sino-Russian African countries have surpassed terrorist organizations in terms of risk, strengthening the influence of the threat to U.S. interests.
U.S. military strategy in Africa must therefore gradually shift from counterterrorism to the center of gravity of the great powers' game. To accelerate the pace of strategic change, the Biden administration has proposed a "10-year conflict prevention and stability promotion strategy" for the West African coastal region.
In January of this year, the US military began contacting and negotiating with West African countries such as Ivory Coast, Benin and Ghana regarding hosting US drone bases.
In March, as Niger announced the abolition of its military cooperation agreement with the United States, the US State Department sent a diplomatic note to 15 West African governments, promising to transfer military assistance to the Sahel region to the coasts of West Africa to help countries in the region improve their counter-terrorism capabilities.
“It can be seen that, although the withdrawal of the US military from Niger is an obligatory move, it is also in line with the overall direction of the US strategic adjustment in Africa to a certain extent, and there is still room for “ backup moves,” said Beijing military expert Li Hai.
For Peter Fan, the former US special envoy for the Sahel issue, the withdrawal from Niger will cause the loss of “hard-to-replace strategic military assets” for the United States and its allies.
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