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U.S. Reaches Deal With Niger to Fight Africa Extremists – Bloomberg
1. U.S. Reaches Deal With Niger to Fight Africa Extremists –
Bloomberg
The U.S. and Niger have reached an
agreement allowing American military personnel to be stationed
in the West African country to combat terror groups operating in
the region, according to U.S. officials.
President Barack Obama’s administration doesn’t intend to
send combat troops to Niger, a White House official said. The
accord could make it possible for the U.S. to base unmanned
surveillance aircraft there, said another U.S. official, adding
that no decision has been made to station the drones.
The pact will allow deployment of U.S. personnel as well as
other military assets in Niger to respond to the terror threat
in neighboring Mali, a U.S. defense official said. The so-called
status-of-forces agreement grants immunity from local laws to
U.S. personnel stationed in the country.
While the contours of the U.S. military presence are still
being worked out, the deal is intended to increase intelligence
collection, among other purposes, the defense official said. The
officials all asked to not be named in discussing the accord,
which has not been announced.
The deal with Niger, which has been in the works for more
than a year, is unconditional and not limited to a specific time
period, according to the U.S. defense official. The New York
Times reported yesterday on the accord and the possibility of
deploying drones in the country.
The pact comes after the Pentagon announced an agreement on
Jan. 26 to provide aerial refueling support to French troops
battling extremists in Mali, including militants operating under
the banner of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM.
Together, the accords signal wider U.S. involvement in
confronting terror groups in North Africa.
Missile Strikes
If approved, the base in Niger would likely be to provide
surveillance for the French-led operation in Mali, the Times
reported. While initially only unarmed drones would fly out of
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2. the base, the site may be used for missile strikes at some point
if the threat worsens, the newspaper said.
General Carter Ham, head of the U.S. military command in
Africa, said the subject was “too operational for me to confirm
or deny,” the Times reported, citing an e-mail it received from
Ham. The Africa Command’s plan still needs approval from the
Pentagon, the White House and officials in Niger, the newspaper
reported.
Since the ouster of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, which
unleashed a flow of weapons to militants in the region, the
Obama administration has been torn between wanting to avoid
entanglements in the region while warning of the dangers of
advancing Islamist extremism.
‘Legal Basis’
The U.S. has shown reluctance to provide weapons or
American troops to the fight in Mali, just as it has largely
sidestepped the civil war in Syria. U.S. officials say that
shifting alliances among at least four rebel groups in Mali have
made it hard to get a clear picture of the conflict there.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offered a brief insight
earlier this month into the Obama administration’s internal
deliberations when he pointed to legal questions being raised
over France’s request for U.S. military help.
“I find that every time I turn around, I face a group of
lawyers,” Panetta told reporters on Jan. 16 in Rome. The
administration’s legal counsel wanted “to be sure that they
feel comfortable that we have the legal basis to do what we are
being requested to do” in aiding the French, he said.
Those questions were resolved and the U.S. is now providing
airlift, intelligence as well as refueling French military
planes.
French Intervention
The U.S. couldn’t directly aid Mali’s current government,
which was installed through a coup, Victoria Nuland, a State
Department spokeswoman, said Jan. 15. She said there were no
restrictions on helping allies such as France.
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3. France intervened in Mali on Jan. 11 after Islamist
fighters overran the town of Konna, sparking concern they might
advance toward Bamako, the capital. The French Defense Ministry
said that 2,500 soldiers have arrived in the landlocked West
African country, which gained independence from France in 1960.
African nations are deploying a force that may total as many as
3,300 troops.
Yesterday, French and Malian forces encircled the historic
city of Timbuktu and now hold its airport, Mali’s army
spokesman, Colonel Diarran Kone, said by phone from Bamako.
At least 11,000 people have been forced from their homes by
the recent fighting, according to the United Nations Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. About 230,000 have
been displaced since the crisis began, the agency said Jan. 22.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Gopal Ratnam in Washington at
gratnam1@bloomberg.net;
Margaret Talev in Washington at
mtalev@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Walcott at
jwalcott9@bloomberg.net
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