U.S. to end military presence in Niger

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell met with Niger's Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine on Friday to formalize the end of the United State's military presence in the country.

The announcement comes a month after Niger's military junta revoked a 12-year-old security pact with Washington that allowed U.S. forces on Nigerian soil to combat Islamist terrorists in the region.

The withdrawal is expected to take place over the next few months.

Relations between Niger and the United States have deteriorated since last year when a military coup pushed out the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum and installed the current junta.

French forces stationed in Niger were expelled shortly after the coup. U.S. troops in the country have been inactive since then.

The $100 million U.S. drone facility, opened in 2018, had been instrumental in American and French initiatives to combat jihadists in West Africa for six years.

The base was reportedly the launchpad for a series of deadly strikes against islamic State fighters in Libya in 2019.

The United States will maintain a diplomatic presence in the country, and Zeine expressed a desire to continue partnering with the United States.

Niger's new leaders, meanwhile, have reached out to strengthen bonds with Russia, following fellow junta-led nations Burkina Faso and Mali, where Russian already has established a military presence.

All three African nations have left Ecowas, the West African regional body which opposed their military takeovers.

They also quit the French-backed G5 Sahel force, saying it undermined African sovereignty, and launched a new defense pact dubbed the Alliance of Sahel States.