The US strategy to combat terrorism in Niger

Muslim Henedy

The US counterterrorism strategy has always placed the greatest burden on its partners from the governments and armies of other countries, while the US forces play a limited combat role. The Pentagon focuses on providing information and support to friendly forces to fight terrorist groups.
This summarizes the American allegations of fighting terrorism through limited cooperation with its partners, while at the same time it created and exploited the crisis to achieve other goals in the Middle East during the past period.
At the same time, the US strategy to combat terrorism in West Africa has not been new in this matter. What the Pentagon announced recently about sending a number of US soldiers to the Niger under the pretext of combating terrorism is only part of the US plan for deployment in Central Africa.

Where the Niger in Central Africa is a desert corridor used by extremists to confront local and foreign authorities, and to create a security chaos in that region, which is strategically important to the national security of the United States.

This analysis aims at understanding and defining Washington’s declared goals and objectives in the future development, which predicts a new wave of exploitation of terrorism to expand and spread again in the African continent in the coming period.

On Monday, September 17, 2018, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Niamey – Niger’s capital – had become an international center for combating terrorist organizations and to stem the waves of illegal immigration in Africa. For this purpose, billions of dollars poured from Europe and the United States to Niger. In addition to financial support, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to strengthen their economic and investment partnership with Niamey.
Western countries (along with economic support) have launched nine military bases in Niger. Also, Washington is about to complete a major air base in Agades, while armed drone aircraft are flying from a runway on the outskirts of Dirko to target terrorists belonging to Al-Qaeda and Daesh which are based in Mali and Libya.
The US presence in Niger remained under wraps until October 2015, according to Foreign Policy, when the US military announced the death of four of its troops operating in the Niger desert during a reconnaissance in the village of Tongo Tongo on the border with Mali.

The killing of US soldiers revealed the US presence in Niger, which has lasted for nearly two decades, and has played a role in curbing terrorist organizations in the Sahel and Sahara, especially in Mali.
The United States has succeeded in exploiting the geopolitical importance of the Niger, which is also used by terrorists to launch their terrorist activities. The US presence in Niger is one of its national security priorities in the Sahel region.
In this context, the United States and Niger signed an agreement in January 2015 to regulate the presence of US forces in Niger as well as sending reconnaissance aircraft to support regional security tasks in the fight against terrorism, and improve the intelligence info about Boko Haram and terrorist organizations deployed in Sahel.

The US strategy is a comprehensive global strategy, but some areas are vital for its geopolitical and economic dimensions, like in the Sahel, Sahara and West Africa. This pushed the United States to deploy at least 6,000 US troops in Africa, most of them in Sahel, West Africa, and Niger, which alone has 900 soldiers deployed.

The US is interested in the Sahel and Sahara for the following reasons:

– Ensuring oil resources: Ensuring the protection and flow of African oil is the top priority of the United States in West Africa, the National Energy Plan issued under President George W. Bush confirmed that West Africa is the fastest growing source of oil and gas in the world.
– Strengthening economic interests: US companies are exploiting the military presence in Niger to reach the uranium mines, where uranium exports account for about 72% of Niger’s export earnings.
– Blocking European influence: The centerpiece of the US plan to control and compete European political and economic influence on the continent is increasing exports and investments directed at it.

– Limiting the Chinese role in the continent: On December 6, 2005, the Council of Foreign Relations issued a report warning the United States of facing fierce competition with China on oil supplies from Africa, calling on Washington to adopt a ” Strategic approach” to invest more resources the continent.
– Strengthening the military presence in Sahara: The US military focuses on two African countries, Djibouti and Niger, which the majority of their populations are Muslims. The military presence in Niger makes the United States the region’s watchdog, both in the Sahel and West Africa.
The real reasons behind the US presence in Niger are linked to its strategic location in the middle of the Sahara and that it form part of the armed conflict in West Africa, which poses a threat to the United States and its allies.

Africa is a challenge as well as a chance for Washington. It is a challenge because the United States is no longer the only player in the African continent. It is also a chance because US wants to strengthen its role and influence as a significant and influential force in the African continent.

In conclusion, we can say that the United States has shifted its military presence in Africa from the provision of logistical and intelligence support to regional and international partners working in Africa to interact formally with events in the continent, especially in the Sahel and Saharan regions.