The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has confirmed Russians security forces have been deployed to the same airbase as American troops in the Nigerien capital, Niamey.
It remains unclear when the Russian troops, who have been in Niger for weeks, were deployed to Airbase 101, which is next to Diori Hamani international airport in Niamey. It is also unclear how many troops are on the ground.
“Our personnel are stationed at Airbase 101, which is a joint military installation in Nigerien and the country’s main airport.
“The Russians are located in a distinct compound and are not in contact with US forces or our equipment,” Austin stated during a Honolulu press conference.
Russia is “developing ties with various African countries in all areas, including in the military one,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on Friday in reaction to reports of the deployment.
The development is the latest fallout from a coup in July last year that depose the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum. Niger’s junta has since embarked on a reconfiguration of its partnerships with western allies. Troops from the US and France, which has a strained relationship with many countries in the region, most of them being its former colonies, have been asked to leave their bases.
Russia is continuing to make inroads into parts of the continent, reawakening cold wr-era relations in recent years and in some cases presenting “regime stabilisation” packages to African leaders. The face of Moscow’s presence has mostly been the Wagner mercenary group.
Ikemesit Effiong, the head of research at Lagos-based geopolitical risk advisory SBM intelligence, said the presence of Russian and US troops in the same Nigerien base is evidence that the region is now “a live geopolitical faultline, with a pro-western coastal West African and a Russophile Sahel”.
“With the fraying of democracy and stressed economies within the region, countries will fall in and out of both blocs with a frequency that will keep Washington and Moscow busy for years to come,” he added.
Following the coup, the US military in Niger relocated to some of its personnel from Airbase 101 to Airbase 201 in Agadez. What US military hardware is still there at Airbase 101 is unknown.
At a cost of more than £80 million, the US constructed Airbase 201 in central Niger. Drones have been used to strike the Islamic state and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, an affiliate of al-Qaida, since 2018.
Washington is worried that without western-led counterinsurgency action, particularly in intelligence, Islamist in the Sahel could broaden their sphere of influence.
Following a conference in mid-March in Niamey, when top US officials voiced concerns about the impending deployment of Russian soldiers and indications that Iran was looking for raw materials in the nation, including uranium, Niger decided to request the withdrawal of US troops.