Niger: Diplomats And Bombs

NIGER

Diplomats and Bombs

The deaths of four Green Berets and five local soldiers in Niger last month have led many to ask why the United States military is operating in a country that many Americans couldn’t find on a map.

The simple answer is that the US is fighting the global war on terror everywhere. But as more details emerge about the ambush that led to the servicemen’s deaths, a complicated and depressing picture of life in the remote, impoverished country has come into the spotlight.

It turns out, for example, that many Nigeriens are misguided about the role of the US military in their country.

The Daily Beast quoted Daouda Chikoto, who recalled how he and his neighbors last year blamed the US after a grenade exploded and killed six children in their village of Tongo Tongo, near the site of the Oct. 4 ambush.

The US had recently completed a $100 million drone base in Niger. Neither the US nor the drones were connected to the grenade blast. But jihadists spread rumors that Americans somehow caused the explosion.

“Most of the information we got about the US and the Nigerien government came from militants,” Chikoto said. “Everyone believes they have a strong intelligence network and probably know everything that happens in Niger.”

Such rumors might have encouraged villagers to help the jihadists in their deadly encounter with the Americans.

As the New York Times explained, few Nigeriens have much allegiance to Niger’s central government in the capital of Niamey whether or not President Mahamadou Issoufou is an ally of the West.

The jihadists come off as more trustworthy. “They are presenting an alternative to a state that villagers associate with corruption and neglect,” a Human Rights Watch representative told the newspaper.

After prodding from France, the US has pledged to provide $60 million for a new, UN-backed counterterrorism force that would help fight militants in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, reported Newsweek.

But more military aid won’t necessarily stamp out Niger’s many problems, argued Foreign Policy. Niger, with one of the highest birthrates on the planet, is also one of the world’s poorest countries. It also faces militant groups on multiple fronts.

President Donald Trump has proposed boosting the Pentagon’s Africa budget by 9 percent while cutting State Department activities there by 30 percent.

A diplomat might have done a good job of explaining to the villagers of Tongo Tongo that the US drones were only for reconnaissance.

Now it’s too late, though. The Nigerien government has requestedthe US deploy armed drones in the country, suggesting the violence won’t end anytime soon.