Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters that partnered activities, including U.S. training of Nigerien soldiers, has been “suspended in light of the situation.” A second defense official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity citing the matter’s sensitivity, said the suspension had begun shortly after President Mohamed Bazoum was detained by his own presidential guard.
The administration has been hesitant to label events in Niger a coup — a designation that under U.S. law could require the cessation of both security and economic assistance — because of the country’s key role as a Western ally in counterterrorism operations in Africa’s Sahel region, where the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other terror groups are active, and its status as one of the few remaining democracies in a region riven by military overthrows.
After investing deeply in its relationship with Bazoum, who took office in 2021 in the first democratic transfer of power since Niger’s independence from France in 1960, the administration had viewed Niger as a hopeful democratic outpost in the region. Now policymakers say they face choices in which a misstep could make the situation worse, even as they hold out hope that it’s not too late to restore the democratically elected leader to power.
“We think it’s credible to see if we can put things back on track,” a senior State Department official said. “We don’t think [Bazoum’s ouster is] fully successful and we think there’s a narrow opportunity to reverse it.”
The Pentagon’s comments came as French military aircraft began an evacuation of European citizens from the international airport in Niamey, Niger’s capital, after demonstrators on Sunday attacked the French Embassy.
The United States, while urging Americans there to avoid “unnecessary movements” and pay attention to embassy safety alerts, has not participated in the evacuation, White House spokesman John Kirby said earlier in a separate briefing for reporters.
“We don’t have any indications of direct threats to U.S. citizens or to our facilities,” Kirby said. “But again, we’re monitoring it literally by the hour,” and if the situation changes “I’m sure we’ll have more to say about that.” He said the administration has urged Nigerien authorities to help facilitate the European evacuation flights.
France sent evacuation emails to its citizens after the embassy attack. The French Foreign Ministry, which estimates there are several hundred French citizens in Niger, a former French colony, said it would also help other Europeans leave the country. Germany, Italy and Spain have indicated their nationals should leave.
The first of an expected three French air force evacuation planes took off from Niamey just before 9 p.m. local time Tuesday with 262 people on board, including a dozen babies, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told Agence France-Presse.
The upheaval began last week when Niger’s presidential guard detained Bazoum and declared guard head Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani the country’s new leader. Since then, the State Department and the Pentagon have made intensive efforts to convince the leaders of Niger’s military — which has not intervened against the presidential guard, but whose position remains unclear — and neighboring countries to pressure the self-proclaimed ruling junta to stand down and reinstall Bazoum.
The United States has two military bases inside the country. About 1,000 troops are deployed there for counterterrorism purposes and partnered operations with Niger’s military forces. “There’s no decision to use them in any way to support evacuation efforts by other countries,” Kirby said. “And there have been no decisions made about pre-positioning any additional [U.S.] forces in or nearby Niger for that purpose. … If we have to make adjustments, we’ll make adjustments. We’re just not there yet.”
He also declined to speculate over whether a group of West African nations who last weekend threatened to use force in Niger if the civilian government were not restored by Sunday, would do so. In response to the threat, military rulers of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso have said they would consider “any military intervention against Niger” a declaration of war against them.
“I’ll let them speak to what their plans are,” Kirby said of the West African group. “We still believe that there’s a window here for diplomacy and that’s what we’re focused on,” he said.
A number of weekend demonstrators appeared in the streets with Russian flags. But despite reports that Moscow or Russia’s Wagner mercenary group was somehow involved in fomenting the apparent coup attempt, he said, “there’s no indication that Russia was behind this” or was “materially supporting it in any way or responsible for what’s happening.”
Defense Department officials previously had stopped short of saying military cooperation was suspended, while acknowledging more vaguely that the power struggle has altered operations. Asked on Monday evening whether the United States had suspended the training of Nigerien soldiers, the second defense official did not offer a direct answer, saying only that U.S. troops “continue daily cooperation to keep the base operations and services functioning.”
Ryder, asked on Tuesday whether the suspension affects long-running regional counterterrorism and surveillance drone flights operating from the U.S. bases in Niger, declined to respond, saying that he “wasn’t going to talk about” intelligence operations.
“Our focus right now is on making sure that our troops continue to stay safe, that we continue to assess the situation,” Ryder said. “The situation does remain fluid. We think it’s just too soon to characterize the nature of ongoing developments.”
Under a provision in the 1986 State Department budget — renewed every year since then — no appropriated funds can be spent “to finance directly any assistance to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup d’état or decree,” or a coup “in which the military plays a decisive role.” The provision also applies to most military aid, which has totaled more than $500 million in training and equipment to Niger since 2012.
Unlike the Europeans and other partners, which have the flexibility to show their displeasure by canceling aid or other programs, then quickly reverse those measures at will, U.S. law holds that a coup-related cessation of assistance can only be restored once a country places a democratically elected government in office.
Over the past decade, the congressional mandate has been temporarily implemented for six countries then lifted after elections, according to the Congressional Research Service. But it has been skirted, despite military takeovers, in many others. The best-known example was Egypt, a major U.S. military aid recipient and security partner whose elected government was overthrown by the military in 2013.
When the Obama administration was criticized for ignoring the law, Jen Psaki, then the State Department spokeswoman, told reporters that officials had “determined we’re not going to make a determination” as to whether a coup had occurred. The situation was “complicated,” she said, because of “our legal obligations, our national security interests, the impact on regional stability. I think that that’s a message that will be understood.” A decade later, Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, the now-retired general who led the coup, remains president of Egypt.
In renewing what is known as the “coup restriction” last year, lawmakers included for the first time a waiver provision. It allows the president to override the mandate, for all or selected assistance programs, even if a coup is declared, on national security grounds after consultation with Congress, said a Senate aide familiar with the provision. Congressional staff members are intending to meet with the administration to discuss its plans for assistance to Niger.
