After the authorities ordered American forces out in March 2024, withdrawal began on 19 May. US forces left Air Base 101 in Niamey on 7 July and Air Base 201 at Agadez on 5 August, completing the process by the mutually agreed date of 15 September. Air Base 201 had cost about US$110 million and was described by the US Air Force as the largest Air Force-led construction project in its history, built for drone operations and Nigerien force training. Russian trainers had arrived at Air Base 101 in May, while American personnel were still there.
Why it mattersThe end of the Western counter-terrorism architecture in the Sahel, and the clearest single measure of what the region's realignment cost the states that made it. Niger gave up a surveillance and strike capability that has not been publicly replaced, in a theatre where its own losses have since become an internal political problem. The overlap at Air Base 101 — Russian trainers arriving while American troops were still on the base — is the substitution stated in its plainest form.
Confidence: HighSources: Official government statements · Established international media reportingMethodologyCorrections
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