WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will remove all its forces and equipment from a small base in Niger this weekend and fewer than 500 remaining troops will leave a critical drone base in the West African country in August, ahead of a Sept. 15 deadline set in an agreement with the new ruling junta, the American commander there said Friday.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman said in an interview that a number of small teams of 10-20 U.S. troops, including special operations forces, have moved to other countries in West Africa. But the bulk of the forces will go to Europe, at least initially.

Ekman and other U.S. military leaders have said other West African nations want to work with the U.S. and may be open to an expanded American presence. He did not detail the locations, but other U.S. officials have pointed to the Ivory Coast and Ghana as examples.

  • KrasnaiaZvezda@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    5 months ago

    and will only serve to further empower the coalition rising up to defend themselves from western terrorism and exploitation.

    As of now a lot of the world population still buys the idea that the US/west are good and things like that. Even with what is happening in Palestine that hasn’t drastically changed yet. But as you say, each country they bomb is a new country that gets to see the US for what they are, and the same would be somewhat true for the neighbours of these countries and the rest of the world, and who knows, they might be one country being bombed by them away from this mass reaching a critical mass.

    For example, if Niger gets bombed by them then Niger’s neighbours at first and then the rest of Africa might come to better understand the situation and try to help Niger as they can and that would likely reverbarate globally, through images and impacts to the global economy, pushing more and more to the same anti-imperialist side.