Dakar, Senegal—

The United States on Sunday urgently reviewed the future of its counterterrorism operations in the Sahel region after Niger’s military junta said it would end years of military cooperation with Washington after a visit by a top U.S. official.

The U.S. military has hundreds of troops stationed at a major air base in northern Niger, where it deploys aircraft in the vast Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert, where jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group have There are activities there.

Senior U.S. envoy Molly Fee, accompanied by Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley, commander of U.S. Africa Command, returned to the capital Niamey this week to meet with senior government officials. She previously visited the country in December, while Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland visited in August.

The U.S. State Department posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday that the talks were candid and that it was in contact with the junta. It is unclear whether the United States has room to negotiate a deal to remain in the country.

Niger is seen as one of the last countries in the restive region that Western countries can cooperate with to combat a growing jihadist insurgency. Until recently, the United States and France stationed more than 2,500 military personnel in the region and, along with other European countries, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid and training.

But that changed in July, when rebel soldiers overthrew the country’s democratically elected president and demanded French troops leave months later.

About 650 U.S. military personnel were still working in Niger in December, according to a White House report to Congress. The Niger base is used for manned and unmanned surveillance operations. In the Sahel, the United States also supports ground forces, including accompanying them on missions. However, such accompanying missions have been scaled back since 2017, when a U.S. military was killed during a joint operation in Niger.

It is unclear what prompted the junta’s decision to suspend military ties. On Saturday, junta spokesman Major Amadou Abdoulamane said U.S. flights over Nigerien territory in recent weeks were illegal. Meanwhile, Insa Garba Saidou, a local activist who assists Niger’s military rulers with communications, criticized the United States for forcing the junta to choose between strategic partners.

“U.S. bases and civilian personnel can no longer remain on Nigerien soil,” he told The Associated Press.

Senior U.S. envoy Faye told reporters after her visit in December that she had had “good discussions” with junta leaders and called on them to set an election timetable in return for restoring military and aid ties. But she also said the United States had warned Niamey against establishing closer ties with Russia.

Neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso, which have each experienced two coups since 2020, have turned to Moscow for security support. After the coup in Niger, the military also sought help from the Russian mercenary organization Wagner.

Cameron Hudson, who has served at the CIA and State Department in Africa, said the incident showed the United States’ diminishing influence in the region and that Niger was angry at Washington’s attempts to pressure the military junta to avoid Russia. “This is ironic because one of the slogans of the Biden administration is that Africans are free to choose their partners,” he said.

The U.S. delegation’s visit coincides with the start of Ramadan, a month of fasting and intense prayer by Muslims from dawn to dusk. General Abdelrahmane Chiani, leader of Niger’s military junta, refused to meet them. A press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Niger was cancelled.

Speaking on state television, a junta spokesman said junta leaders were meeting the U.S. delegation out of courtesy and called their tone condescending.

Anneliese Bernard, a former U.S. State Department official specializing in Africa and director of the Risk Advisory Group’s Strategic Stability Advisory, said the recent visit was a failure and that the U.S. needs to take a critical look at its approach to diplomacy, not just in Niger. . But throughout the region.

“We cannot continue to observe what is happening in Niger and the Sahel as usual in a vacuum,” she said. “The U.S. government tends to pull the wool over its eyes. We cannot deny that our deteriorating relations with other parts of the world (the Gulf, Israel, etc.) have had a significant impact on our bilateral relations with West African countries. “