American troops will soon withdraw from counterterrorist strongholds in Niger and Chad, paving the way for Russia and China to tighten their grip on the continent while accelerating the decline of Washington’s “soft power,” the former head of the World Bank, David Malpass, tells the Sun.
Nearly all of America’s 1,000 counterterrorism troops and aerial drones have been ordered to depart Niger, home to a $110 million U.S. air base completed only six years ago. The agreement was sealed in a meeting at Washington earlier in April between the country’s Prime Minister, Ali Lamine Zeine, and Deputy Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell. The largest long-term American position in western Africa will be no more.
China, meanwhile, is moving in to develop oil, uranium and hydropower in Niger, which is three times the area of Texas. Russia, too, is making fast gains in the country. Earlier this month, Russian military instructors arrived at the capital of Niamey to provide combat training and deploy their air defense system. Days later, anti-American protests broke out in the city. Neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso are also collaborating with Russian mercenaries, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Mr. Malpass sees these developments as part and parcel to an erosion of America’s assertiveness around the world. Washington — and the West — are losing the fight to combat terrorism in Africa, while malign forces are entering the continent with popular support. “Peace through strength requires military power, global respect, and strong economic growth,” he tells the Sun. “The U.S. is falling short in each area and needs to plot a new course.”
Since 2018, America’s base in Niger has been used to target Islamic State militants and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, an al Qaeda affiliate, in the Sahel region. Yank drones surveilled insurgent activities, and Green Berets worked with local commandos during combat operations. Defying those eviction orders of Mr. Zeine, however, would imperil “the safety of our personnel in the region,” a senior American Air Force leader deployed in Niger warned in a whistleblower complaint to Congress.
This deals but another blow to the West’s counterterrorism efforts in the Sahel, a semidesert region south of the Sahara that has been fraught with jihadist violence in recent years.
France, the former colonial power in much of West Africa, withdrew its troops from Niger last year. In March, the ruling junta canceled its status of forces agreement with Washington. That might have been the nail in the coffin after the junta assumed control through a military coup last July and derided America’s military presence in the country as “illegal.”
The decision to depart Niger came days after the Pentagon announced its plan to pull out roughly 75 Army Special Forces personnel based at the capital of Chad, Ndjamena. Chad’s top air force general had ordered America to end activities at an air base there as concerns grew over the legality of America’s presence in the region. Chad, whose troops had long trained alongside the Green Berets, was another keystone of Washington’s counterterrorism strategy in the region.
Many foreign policy critics point to America’s exit from Afghanistan in August of 2021 as a bellwether for the current wave of what they describe as American isolationism. “The overnight surrender of U.S. defenses in Afghanistan along with lives and valuable weaponry still undercuts us around the world,” Mr. Malpass, who served as president of the World Bank Group from 2018 to 2023, says.
That precipitated other recent failures across various theaters and conflicts, Mr. Malpass says. “The U.S. has been unable to project power in eastern Europe, force Hamas to release hostages, break the Houthi chokehold on Red Sea shipping, stop Maduro, or avoid the surrender of the key U.S. base in Niger.” He also mentions the repeated United Nations votes that defy Washington’s interests, as seen in the security council’s recent efforts to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a full member.
At the same time, fears are growing among hawks in Congress that America’s navy is losing out to that of the People’s Republic. “Just supplying two proxy wars is stretching our military,” Mr. Malpass says, “at a time when China is rapidly building a world-class navy and sophisticated nuclear and hypersonic weaponry.”
With Washington being edged out of Niger and Chad, the pendulum of U.S. counterterrorism strategy could now swing toward stopping militant invasions of countries along the West African coast and away from defeating al Qaeda and Islamic State head-on.
“The U.S. has long neglected Africa, but the world’s rogue regimes aren’t making the same mistake,” the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board writes. “They’re filling this vacuum, and trouble for U.S. interests will follow.”
