Germany to surrender key airbase in Niger after talks fail

An German Luftwaffe A400M military air transport aircraft stands on the tarmac of the 62nd Air Transport Wing in Wunstorf, Lower Saxony | File Photo: Ole Spata/dpa

Berlin (dpa) – Germany is to surrender control of its airbase in Niger after failing to reach agreement with the Nigerien authorities on legal immunity for its military personnel, the Defence Ministry informed parliament in Berlin on Saturday.

The airbase in Niamey, a key asset in Western efforts to contain terrorism in the region, is to close on August 31, by when all the troops stationed there will have returned to Germany.

According to the Defence Ministry’s note to parliament, which has been seen by dpa, the government has “reassessed” changes in the situation over recent weeks and taken the decision to leave.

“The draft agreement passed to us by Niger cannot serve as basis for negotiations on a status agreement, with respect neither to its nature nor to its contents,” the Defence Ministry wrote. Immunity for German troops had not been assured, and the positions of the two sides were far apart, it said.

Talks on a status agreement have been abandoned, and cooperation and training projects provided by the German Defence and Foreign Ministries would no longer be pursued, it said.

The Niamey airbase served as the logistics hub for the UN’s MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in neighbouring Mali that was set up in 2013 and terminated a year ago.

The Niger army took control of the country in a coup on July 26 last year. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius nevertheless backed limited cooperation with the coup leaders under certain conditions.

Following coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger was for a time seen as the West’s last democratically ruled partner in battling terrorism in the region, which has suffered repeated attacks by Islamist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Russia has become increasingly active in the region.

Additional Reporting by StratPost

Meanwhile, the military leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have signed a new treaty in addition to a mutual defence pact agreed last year. The three countries also walked away from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) western African bloc in January, which had suspended the memberships of the three countries after military takeovers.

While French troops have already left the three countries, U.S. forces were expected to complete their withdrawal from Airbase 101 in Niamey on Sunday. U.S. and allied troops used the site as a drone base for operations against al Qaeda and Islamic State. U.S. forces have also been operating from a second site, Air Base 201 in the city of Agadez. Russian forces, reported to be numbering around a hundred, have already been deployed to the same airbase and have been kept separate from U.S. forces, so far.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. service members were expected to withdraw from Niger no later than September 15. After a military junta overthrew the civilian government in Niger in July 2023, it set up a National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) to rule the country, which called for U.S. service members to leave country. U.S. forces had been operating in Niger for more than a decade.

The U.S. Pentagon said in March that the only Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions its forces, numbering around a 1,000 (including civilian contractors besides 648 service personnel) in Niger, were conducting were for force protection with no counter-terrorism missions ‘either unilaterally or with the Nigerien government since the July coup.’ The U.S. spent a reported USD 110 million on setting up operations at the drone operations site at Airbase 201 at Agadez in central Niger, from which it will withdraw next after, where U.S. departures from Airbase 101 have been consolidating

Russian troops have a presence in all three countries, including members of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, renamed to Africa Corps. Wagner mercenaries have been accused of committing atrocities in Mali along with its military. Niger’s military government revoked the licence of French nuclear fuel producer Oranco to operate one of the world’s largest uranium mines in June.