Niger, Russian troops enter the bottom internet hosting US troopers | EUROtoday

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A gaggle of Russian troopers has entered a base in Niger occupied, till now, by US troopers. The operation, reported by the company Reuterscomes after the Niamey navy junta ordered Washington to withdraw its roughly 1000 males from the Sahelian nation, a former pro-Western stronghold ousted by the coup d'état in the summertime of 2023.

A US official interviewed by Reuters declared that the scenario “is manageable in the short term”, additionally as a result of Moscow's troops have settled in a special hangar from the identical construction: Airbase 101, situated close to the Diori Hamani International Airport of the capital.

It is already much less clear what the developments could possibly be, given the fibrillations on the Moscow-Washington axis and the more and more stressed situation of the Sahel: the sub-Saharan area pervaded by a whirlwind of coups d'état and the rise of navy juntas at odds with the previous associate of the USA and the EU. The solely navy contingent remaining within the nation is the Italian one. The Farnesina has not but expressed its opinion and lets Il Sole 24 Ore know that the scenario is evolving, whereas the Kremlin limits itself to commenting that Russia is “developing relations” with African nations.

Moscow's progress within the area

US Defense Secretary Loyd Austin tries to downplay the incident and explains that in the mean time there are not any “significant problems” in Moscow's transfer, additionally as a result of the Russians don’t “have access” to US forces or their gear. Certainly the penetration of Moscow's troops, now additionally claimed by the Kremlin, marks a brand new progress in Russia's growth within the Sahel, alongside a method marked by navy and financial agreements with governments more and more hostile to the outdated Western companions.

Mali broke the ice in 2021 with an settlement between the navy junta and the Russian contractors of the previous Wagner firm, an settlement adopted by documented contacts between the authorities of Burkina Faso within the following years and the talks between Niger and Russia after the coup State that overthrew the pro-Western chief Mohammed Bazoum. Moscow has crammed the hole left by the farewell of Western missions within the area, marked by a local weather of ever-increasing intolerance in the direction of the previous French colonists and, now, the American troops themselves.