Niamey —

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Niger’s capital on Saturday to demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops after the ruling junta further changed its strategy, ending a military agreement with the United States and welcoming Russian military trainers.

The crowd linked arms and walked through central Niamey in a demonstration waving Nigerien flags, recalling the anti-French protests last year after Niger’s army seized power in a coup, prompting French troops to withdraw from Niger.

A handwritten sign in English read “US out of Niger” in a show of support for the junta and its decision in mid-March to revoke an agreement that allowed about 1,000 US military personnel to operate on Nigerien soil. Two bases.

“We are here to say no to American bases, we do not want Americans on our soil,” protester Maria Sali said on the sidelines of the march.

Before the coup, Niger had been a key security partner to France and the United States, which have used Niger as a base for the international community to contain a decade-long Islamist insurgency in West Africa’s Sahel region.

But Niger’s new authorities, along with juntas in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, have ended military agreements with one-time Western allies, withdrawn from regional political and economic bloc ECOWAS and forged closer ties with Russia.

The arrival of Russian military instructors and equipment on Wednesday was further evidence of the junta’s willingness to work more closely with Moscow, which is seeking to increase its influence in Africa.

Some Russian flags were visible at the protests, but some citizens told Reuters on Friday they did not want welcome Russian defense aid to lead to a permanent presence in Niger.

“We must not then see Russia building foreign military bases,” said Abdoulaye Seydou, coordinator of the M62 coalition, a civil society group that led anti-France protests last year.

His concerns were echoed by student Suleiman Osman: “This is how France, the United States and all the other countries settled in Niger – through military cooperation they ended up occupying most of our country.”

But it’s unclear if or when U.S. troops will withdraw.

In March, senior U.S. generals seemed to suggest that at least some within Niger’s military government supported the continued U.S. troop presence despite Niger’s announcement to withdraw from the agreement.

One of the U.S. projects in Niger is a drone base called “201 Air Base” that costs more than $100 million.

The US crisis monitoring group ACLED cited reports that violence in the central Sahel region peaked in 2023, with conflict deaths in the region increasing by 38% from the previous year, with more than 8,000 people killed in Burkina Faso alone last year Year.