The United States has begun talks with Niger to withdraw the roughly 1,000 American troops in the country, a State Department official confirmed Monday.
The development comes after Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell met with Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine on Friday, with the two on Monday committing “to initiate conversations in Niamey to begin planning an orderly and responsible withdrawal of U.S. troops from Niger,” the official told The Hill.
The New York Times first reported on the coming withdrawal.
And CNN reported the Defense Department would send a small delegation from the Pentagon and U.S. Africa Command to participate in the discussions.
The presence of U.S. forces in Niger seemed to be coming to a close since last month, when the military junta that rules the country revoked a military cooperation agreement with Washington. That accord gave American forces a major foothold to fight against extremist groups — predominately an Islamist insurgency — in the region.
The development is a major setback for U.S. efforts in the Sahel, where just six years ago, Washington spent $110 million to open a base in northern Niger used to fly surveillance drones.
