Some of the United States soldiers deployed in Chad will now be withdrawn to somewhere else, the Pentagon said, days after Washington agreed to move forces out of neighboring Niger.
The US has approximately 100 troops stationed in Chad as part of its strategy to combat extremism in West Africa. Western powers like the U.S. and European Union seem to be losing the battle in the Sahel.
“USAFRICOM is currently planning to reposition some US military forces from Chad, a portion of which were already scheduled to depart,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told a news conference on Thursday, referring to the US Africa Command.
“This is a temporary step as part of an ongoing review of our security cooperation, which will resume after Chad’s May 6 presidential election.”
Countries across the continent, including Chad, Central African Republic, Mali and Libya, have turned toward Russia for security assistance. Now, in Niger, Russian paramilitary fighters have arrived, sidelining the U.S. and forcing the withdrawal of 1,100 U.S. military personnel there in the next several months.
The withdrawal of about 75 US Army Special Forces personnel is scheduled to begin this weekend and be completed within days unless there are last-minute diplomatic developments. Chad’s air force chief had ordered the US military this month to halt activities at an air base near the capital N’Djamena, according to a letter sent to the transitional government.
He said he had asked the US military to provide documents “justifying its presence at the Adji Kossei Air Base” but had not received any.
US troops at the Adji Kossei military base train anti-terrorism special forces and an elite unit of the Chadian army to combat the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram. Chad is a major recipient of US military aids and supports.
The removal of American troops from both countries could upend U.S. counter-terrorism missions in the West African Sahel region, commander of U.S. Africa Command, Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley told the Washington Post.
“If we lose our footprint in the Sahel, that will degrade our ability to do active watching and warning, including for homeland defense,” Langley said.
However, the U.S. maintains that American troops “have not been asked to leave Chad,” according to Ryder. He did confirm ongoing discussions over the current Status of Forces Agreement, the formal pact that U.S. forces operate under in other countries.
Neighboring Niger is also a linchpin in the US and French strategy to combat jihadists in the region. But Niger’s ruling military junta said in March that it was ending a military cooperation agreement with Washington, claiming it had been imposed and the US troop presence was illegal.
Washington this week began discussions with Niger on withdrawing the more than 1,000 US personnel in the country, which is also home to a $100-million American drone base.
The United States will “continue to explore options on how we can ensure that we’re able to continue to address potential terrorist threats” in the wake of the withdrawal, Ryder said this week following the announcement of the US pull-out from Niger.
General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno seized the presidency of Chad in a 2021 coup after the death of his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled the Sahel country with an iron fist for more than three decades.
He announced in March his candidacy in the upcoming presidential election that has seen opposition candidates banned from running, and his main rival Yaya Dillo Djerou shot dead in an army assault on his party headquarters.