US troops to leave Chad as another African state reevaluates relations - ExBulletin

Source: ExBulletin

LIVINGSTONE, Zambia Dozens of U.S. troops are expected to withdraw from Chad in the coming days, three senior U.S. officials said Thursday, amid a broader and unintended reconfiguration of Washington's security policy in a volatile region of the 'Africa.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the military moves, said the repositioning could be temporary as the United States intends to negotiate with Chad over its security relationship, including possibly the return of troops who left after the presidential elections of May 6.

This is the second time in a week that the Biden administration has acknowledged that it will comply with a host nation directive to withdraw deployed forces from an African country considered an integral part of U.S. counterterrorism operations in the region. On Friday, officials said the United States had agreed to withdraw more than 1,000 troops from neighboring Niger.

The upheavals in Chad affect fewer than a hundred Army Special Forces soldiers stationed at the French base in NDjamena, the capital. They were on a six-month rotation that is ending, according to one of the U.S. officials. A small number of U.S. military personnel working with a regional joint task force focused on Lake Chad, where the extremist group Boko Haram and its affiliates are active, will remain in the country, the source said.

The official stressed that unlike Niger, the Chadian government did not cancel the status of forces agreement that governed its military relations with the United States. The departure of the special forces troops, first reported by the New York Times, instead follows an apparent disagreement between American officials and a Chadian general, who claimed that Washington had not produced documents justifying its military presence in NDjamena and asked the Americans to stop immediately. their basic activity.

Those concerns, raised by Idriss Amine Ahmed, a top general in the Chadian air force, were relayed by letter, not through traditional diplomatic channels, according to two U.S. officials. CNN first reported on his letter last week. There was also confusion about his intentions, with some officials saying the Chadians seemed to expect more from the United States in terms of partnership and others saying Chad's desires were unclear.

A Chadian government spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said in a news conference Thursday that while talks with Chad continue, commanders are considering repositioning some U.S. military forces.

He called the change a temporary measure.

They ask their Western partners the following question: what does this bring us? " said a Western official of the Chadians. And it's not such a bad thing that the West is considering the same thing.

The debate around the American military presence in Chad, a vast landlocked country in Central Africa, is particularly tense given the rejection of Western military partnerships in the central Sahel countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

The three former French colonies face growing threats from Islamist extremist organizations, are ruled by military juntas and are increasingly turning to Russia for military aid. In recent years, each country's respective governments have demanded that French military forces, which have historically been the main international partner in the fight against terrorism, leave their countries.

The United States, which no longer maintains security relations with Mali or Burkina Faso since their coups, has maintained its presence in Niger, which includes a new drone base whose construction cost 110 million dollars.

While U.S. security assistance was cut off after Niger's military seized power last summer, negotiations have continued, with the United States seeking to force Niger to accept a democratic transition. But a tense meeting last month prompted the junta to cancel the status of forces agreement and declare the U.S. military presence illegal.

The junta spokesman said the US delegation had tried to force the West African country not to maintain relations with certain other countries, notably Iran and Russia.

Unlike in the central Sahel, the leader of Chad, General Mahamat Idriss Dby Itno, in power since 2021, has not called for the French to leave. But he has established ties with leaders of the central Sahel and with Russia, and some analysts say a French withdrawal is inevitable. Earlier this year, Dby visited Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin, who said the two countries had great opportunities to develop bilateral relations.

The meeting marked a change from last year, when U.S. intelligence officials warned that Russian mercenaries were working with rebels to overthrow the Chadian government, then seen as too pro-Western.

The Western official praised the work of multinational forces to combat Boko Haram in the Lake Chad basin, but he said personnel in NDjamena have seen their mission diminish because the wave of coups in the region has limited the types of military activities that partner forces can carry out from Chad. .

It's important to think about our strategic partnerships, the official said, to think about the purpose we serve.

Maj. Gen. Todd R. Wasmund, who oversees a small number of troops in Chad and Niger, said in an interview that Sahel countries continue to want to partner with the United States.

But they also want us to respect them as sovereign nations, he added. So we both have to make a choice about how to demonstrate our commitment to shared values and goals.

Lamothe and Hudson reported from Washington.

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