Africa-Press – Uganda. Last month, Niger withdrew from a military agreement with the United States that had allowed a US drone base to be established in the north of the African country. Explaining their decision, Niger’s military authorities said that the agreement had been imposed on the country and was not in the interests of its people.
Russia’s advantage over the United States in Africa is that Moscow can meet the continent’s urgent security needs through arms sales, which is beyond Washington’s capacity, the US media reported, citing an unnamed US official.
“Where the Russians have a real advantage over the United States is they have weapons, and they sell weapons, including helicopters,” the senior US official said, as quoted by the media. “And they sell small arms. There are a lot of security challenges in Africa and Africans need weapons.”
The media outlet noted that countries across the continent, including Chad, the Central African Republic, Mali and Libya, have turned to Russia for security assistance. In addition, Russian trainers have arrived in Niger, sidelining the US and forcing the withdrawal of 1,100 US troops from there in the next few months, an official told the media.
The US tried to return to some African countries after the coup to become “peacekeepers” after the French withdrew, but “it’s not working,” Cameron Hudson, a former intelligence officer for Africa at the CIA, told the media.
“We are now out. Russia is now in,” Hudson said.Another US official told the publication that most African governments “don’t want to be told what to do.”
“There’s a long history of the West telling African countries how to govern, and they’re finally saying ‘enough,'” he noted.
These denials, including in Niger, “have tested” US officials and left a gap in Africa for US competitors such as Russia and China, the media concluded.
In mid-April, Russian specialists arrived in Niger to train local forces to fight terrorism. In March, a spokesperson for the Nigerien military said that the country’s transitional government, which took power in a coup last July, had terminated the military agreement with the United States with immediate effect, citing the interests of the Nigerien people.
Niger’s Interior Ministry recently said that the US had promised to submit a plan for the “disengagement” of troops from the Western African country after Niamey ended its military pact with Washington.
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