By Scott Ritter
August 16, 2023
Last week, Acting Deputy Secretary of State for the United States Victoria Nuland made her third visit to Niger in the past two years.
This time, Nuland was in the African country to respond to the July 26 military coup, which saw the ouster of the constitutionally-elected President Mohamed Bazoum by a group of military officers, operating under the umbrella of the newly-formed National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, led by the commander of the presidential guard, General Abdourahmane Tchiani, who subsequently declared himself to be the new head of state.
Nuland had sought a meeting with the ousted president, Bazoum, as well as the leader of the new military government, General Tchiani. She was denied both, and instead held a very strained dialogue with Tchiani’s military chief, General Moussa Salaou Barmou, who headed a delegation of lesser officers. Nuland called the talks with Barmou “frank” and “difficult.” What she did not do, however, was call a spade a spade, refusing to label the Nigerien coup a coup, but rather treating it as temporary domestic political mishap which, with a little bit of US-applied pressure from the right source, could be overcome.
The reasoning behind the American game of semantics is that, by law, if the US recognizes the Nigerien coup as a coup, then it must cease all military-to-military interactions between a force of some 1,100 US military personnel currently stationed in Niger, and their Nigerien military counterparts, as well as all other forms of US-funded aid. The law in question, known as Section 7008 (of Public Law 117-328, Division K), specifically states that no funds appropriated by Congress in support of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS) “shall be obligated or expended to finance directly any assistance to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup d’état or decree.”
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US Considers Ways to Keep Its Military Presence in Niger
Aug 17, 2023
The Biden administration is considering ways to maintain its military presence in Niger following the July 26 coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.
Niger serves as a platform for US operations in the Sahel region as it hosts about 1,100 troops and a major drone base that cost over $100 million to build, known as Air Base 201.
The US has not formally declared the situation in Niger a coup since that would require cutting off aid and other types of support to the Nigerien military. CNN reported Thursday that one option being considered to maintain the US military presence in the country is issuing a waiver to allow US operations to continue in Niger if a coup determination is made.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that another option for the administration would be to stop short of declaring a coup and working out an arrangement with the junta to continue counterterrorism support.
Many of the Niger junta leaders have received training from the US and have a long history of cooperating with the US military, including Brig. Gen. Moussa Barmou, who has proclaimed himself Niger’s new defense chief. Barmou worked closely with US special operations forces over the years, and according to CNN’s sources, has kept in touch with several current and former US military officials.
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