PARIS, January 27. /TASS/. The US does not plan to establish bases in West Africa after the withdrawal of troops from a military facility in Niger in 2024, US Africa Command Deputy Commander Lieutenant General John Brennan Jr. said.
"We do not intend to create drone bases anywhere. We focus more on deploying the necessary forces and means to the right place at the right time, and then leaving. We are not pursuing a long-standing presence in West African countries," he said in an interview with the AFP news agency.
Speaking about the situation in the Sahel region, the defense official noted that the US continues to cooperate with Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, all of which have recently experienced military takeovers. However, from 2020 to 2023, when military coups took place, the US officially suspended security cooperation with these countries. "We indeed shared information with some of them so they could carry out strikes on key terrorist targets. We continue to engage in contacts with our military partners in the Sahel region, albeit unofficially," Brennan Jr. added.
In August 2024, The New York Times reported that servicemen transferred control of their last military base in Agadez in northern Niger to local armed forces, concluding the withdrawal of US troops from the country. They have also evacuated weapons and "sensitive technologies." In July 2024, the US military withdrew from an air base in Niamey.
In March 2024, Niger terminated a military agreement with the US that had allowed a US drone base to be set up in the country. The authorities noted that the agreement had been imposed and was not in the interests of the people. Nearly 1,100 US servicemen were deployed in Niger by the end of 2023.