The US had two air bases in Niger until September last year. US surveillance drones operated from the bases, using high-tech cameras to peer through dense forest to locate terror groups. The drones were thought to be involved in locating another American resident of Niger who was kidnapped in 2020, during the first Trump administration. Washington sent SEAL Team Six to successfully rescue that civilian.
According to the military source, Niger wanted Washington to keep its bases in Niger. But in March last year, Niger complained about the “condescending attitude” of a US delegation sent to Niger by the Biden administration and ordered all US base personnel to leave.
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General Abdourahamane Tiani, the head of Niger’s military regime, raises his fist to greet the crowd on the first anniversary of his takeover, July 26, 2024. (Boureima Hama/AFP via Getty Images)
Niger’s government spokesman Amadou Adramane complained on national television after the March 16 meeting that the former government’s officials were not following diplomatic protocol. “Niger deplores the US delegation’s intention to deny the sovereign Nigerian people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships,” he said.
Adramane continued: “The government of Niger also strongly denounces the condescending attitude accompanying the threat of retaliation by the head of the US delegation towards the Nigerien government and people.”
Mary “Molly” Phee, then an assistant secretary of state in the Biden administration, was tasked with leading the U.S. team during their meeting with Niger’s military leadership. Several sources reported that as head of delegation, she demanded that the country stop doing business with Russia and Iran or face sanctions.
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The US and Niger flags fly at a base camp in Agadez, Niger on April 16, 2018. The US has handed over its last military base in Niger to the country’s authorities, officials announced on August 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Carley Petesch, file)
Phee said she was following the Biden administration’s policies, saying, “I am a professional diplomat with more than thirty years of experience, and I led a multi-agency delegation dispatched to share a proposal developed and approved by the White House.” The Nigerien junta rejected our offer and used a misogynistic trope to allay legitimate concerns about their behavior.”
Within months of the Phee delegation’s meeting with Niger’s leaders, all U.S. personnel and their drones had departed Niger, leaving Washington, the military source claimed, with “no eyes in the sky.”
This prompted then-commander of US Africa Command (AFRICOM), Marine Corps General Michael Langley, to tell military chiefs at an African Chiefs of Defense conference in May: “Since leaving Niger in September last year, we have observed an increase in attacks by violent extremist organizations, not only in Niger but across the Sahel, including Nigeria and from Burkina Faso and Mali.”
The general added that terrorist groups have increased both their capacity and “proliferation of weapons,” concluding: “Unfortunately, with our withdrawal from the region, we have lost our ability to closely monitor these terrorist groups.”
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“Since the previous government lost us access to Niger, the Americans and Western powers have been completely blind and unable to respond quickly.”
President Joe Biden speaks during the Africa Leaders Summit on December 15, 2022 in Washington, DC (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The source agreed that SEAL Team Six could potentially be redeployed to rescue this new American kidnap victim. But he said first the rescue team needs to know where the victim is. “If we had stayed now…Niger would be much safer, and we would have eyes in the sky to help find the American missionary…now we are left with nothing in terms of resources.”
Rescue, the source said, is “difficult to impossible… first we have to find the man.”
Analysts agreed that, especially in the warm conditions in the Sahel, it is difficult for Washington’s other “eyes” – satellites – to be effective in tracking the victim.
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued its highest possible travel advisory, stating: “Do not travel to Niger for any reason due to crime, unrest, terrorism, health and kidnapping.”
