The Pentagon said Tuesday it has suspended security cooperation with Niger due to the political unrest in the West African nation, but U.S. troops are not being evacuated, and some are still even continuing to engage with members of the country's military.
“There's no imminent threat against any U.S. personnel or American citizens,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon's top spokesman, told reporters Tuesday.
Ryder said that while the security cooperation between the U.S. and Nigerien military has been suspended, “we maintain close contact with our Niger military counterparts in the country, as the situation continues to unfold” and “when necessary [and] environment permitting,” service members are still able to go off base to foster that engagement.
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Niger's democratically elected leader, President Mohamed Bazoum, was put under house arrest late last week when part of the country's military mutinied. The news became public in the early hours of July 27, shortly after several military leaders appeared on TV and declared a curfew and the closing of the country's borders “until the situation stabilized,” the Associated Press reported.
Bazoum was elected president two years ago in the nation's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since its independence from france in 1960. He has not resigned his office since being detained.
Now, nearly a week later, Ryder is…
