The United States government has insisted that there are no plans for the establishment of a US military base in Nigeria following the withdrawal of American troops from Niger Republic.
Major General Kenneth Eckman, the Element Lead, Coordination, US Africa Command, Department of Defense West Africa, made this known on Friday in Abuja said, “There are no plans for a U.S. base here in Nigeria. I recognize it is a popular concern. I recognize that the presence of U.S. forces comes with costs and benefits, depending on the context but I just want to reassure you there are no plans.
Asked why he was in Nigeria, the General who coordinates with African militaries and allies to build and advance security across Africa said, “I am aware of no discussions between U.S. and Nigerian authorities on placing a U.S. base in Nigeria as a result of the Niger withdrawal. I want to be perfectly clear on that. However, the problem we’re trying to solve is Sahelian-based violent extremism, and if the U.S. is not functioning in Niger, the question is then where should we be?
“That’s what led us to an outside-in approach relative to the Sahel. And then anytime you talk about outside-in, the important question is what is Nigeria’s role, given the strength of the nation, given the closeness of our partnership. So it’s a very natural question. And I’m not surprised that some people assumed that there were discussions going on about this.
“As military strategists, we talk about key terrain. And right now the key terrain dealing with ISIS-Sahel and with JNIM is in the tri-border region that includes the western part of Niger and also Burkina Faso. That terrain is very important. Just ask our Burkinabe partners. That partnership, as you know, has waned.
“So what we are doing is boosting our cooperation with Cote-d’Ivoire, Ghana and other allies with more trainings and collaboration
Giving an update on the withdrawal of American troops from Niger, Gen Eckman said, “I recently came back from Niamey. I’ve been there since the beginning of April, and my role there has been to coordinate the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Niger. We’re almost done. We’ve achieved, together with our Nigerien partners, the safe, orderly, and responsible withdrawal of U.S. forces.
“On the 5th of August, we watched the last C-17 fly out of Air Base 201, which is in Agadez, and that was the last major movement of U.S. forces and material. And then just two days ago, we signed over the last U.S. location, and as I speak to you today, all former U.S. areas, facilities, and material (non tactical/technical) that remain in Niger have been turned over to the Nigerien military and to the Nigerien authorities. So we’re almost done.
“The way this all happened and the reason that I’m claiming all this prior to the 15 September deadline was the close coordination with our Nigerien partners. It was a shared goal for both sides that we make this withdrawal go as smoothly as possible, and I’m very grateful to them. So the good news is that the withdrawal went well.
“The bad news is that regional security is not going well. And so concurrent with the coordination on the withdrawal, we’ve been working with regional partners, regional military partners, on how to address the growing violent extremist organizations, security problem that comes out of the Sahel.
“While our objectives haven’t changed, and those are shared objectives between the United States and our African partners, they have become harder to achieve. And as I travel around the West Africa region, as I talk to civilian and military leaders, they all share these concerns. If there is one thing that we agree on, it’s the risks involved.
“And so our approach to this has been to engage with our regional military partners and their civilian leadership, and it starts by listening. Because each context, each part of the geography, each military partner has different needs and different approaches to the regional security problem, so it does start by listening. The United States, and U.S. AFRICOM, as we function here in West Africa, we do nothing by ourselves. Everything that we do is through partner-led, U.S.-enabled operations.
“So we don’t do it for our partners. We help them do it and do it better. And then all of this builds on a strong foundation of security cooperation. It’s about exercises, it’s about training, and it’s about grant/security assistance. Those are the things that amount to security partnership, and what we do with our operational forces is just a very small part.
Asked to comment on how the threat of violence extremism is affecting Nigeria from AFRICOM’s perspective, Gen Ackman said, “We see the threats and risks quite similarly. Nigeria benefits from a very strong military, and from strong policing institutions as well, and so what we’ve talked about is their solutions that they’re working on and how U.S. security assistance makes a difference.
“I think our views are quite similar, and it really comes down to, with the departure of U.S. forces from Niger, the region is less secure. I did want to highlight that in some cases, regional partners come together quite well on security. Two weeks ago, I was in Ndjamena, where, as you know, the multinational joint task force MNJTF operates in the Lake Chad Basin. That organization which is commanded by a Nigerian military member, in my opinion, is doing quite a good job on security in the Lake Chad Basin area.
On whether military approach can solve the insecurity particularly terrorism, violent extremism, he said, “What AFRICOM is doing taking a broader approach, because if you’re militarily countering terrorists, you’re addressing a symptom. What we really need to get to is get the underlying causes, the foundational reasons that cause terrorism to exist and perpetuate.
“And so that comes down to the West African context. It comes down to governance all the way down to the local level. It comes down to access to services. It comes down to competition for limited resources, and climate change has a significant impact on that too. The military component is what we do here.
“Our partners sit on a solid foundation of U.S. diplomacy, of U.S. mutually beneficial trade and investment, and on top of development, humanitarian assistance, which continues throughout. And so when you look at the at the AES, the so-called AES states in the Sahel, although they are currently being led by coup governments, that’s how they were declared, there’s been no reduction in the development in humanitarian assistance going to the people in those countries, and that’s just reflective of our continued commitment to work on the underlying causes.