According to a report from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) released earlier this year, Trump launched nearly as many airstrikes in just his first five months in office as President Biden did during his entire four-year term.
If Trump’s claims of a Christmas Eve attack on Venezuela and reports that it was a CIA drone strike are true, the US has bombed seven countries this year, on top of the airstrikes targeting alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean.
(today)
The Nigerian military has said in the past that the group has roots in neighboring Niger and that it became more active in Nigeria’s border communities following a 2023 military coup. That coup resulted in fractured relations between Nigeria and Niger, and affected their multinational military operations along the porous border.
(December 9, 2025)
A Nigerian military aircraft, carrying 11 personnel, is detained in Burkina Faso for alleged airspace violation.
Burkina Faso, a member of the Alliance of Sahel States, claims the aircraft‘s presence was an unfriendly act that breached sovereignty.
The Sahel States Alliance has condemned the incident, emphasizing heightened alert for airspace protection.
The detention follows recent Nigerian airstrikes in Benin targeting coup plotters, which adds tension in the region.
(December 16, 2025)
Between 2020 and 2025, nine coup attempts toppled five democratic governments and two military ones. The latest successful coup, in Guinea-Bissau, happened on November 28. Bissau-Guineans had voted in the presidential election some days before and were waiting for the results to be announced when the military seized the national television station, detained incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, and announced a new military leader.
ECOWAS, whose high-level delegation was in Bissau to monitor the electoral process when the coup happened, appeared on the back foot, unable to do much more than issue condemnatory statements. Those statements sounded similar to those it issued after the coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea.
(December 15, 2025)
Military help for the government came from the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS.
(…)
Several West African countries have witnessed coups in recent years, including Benin’s northern neighbours, Niger and Burkina Faso.
(December 22, 2025)
Karr said the operation was an early sign the U.S. was rebuilding its capacity in the region after Niger ordered U.S. troops to leave a sprawling, newly built air base in the desert last year, and turned instead to Russia for security assistance.
„In recent weeks we‘ve seen a resumption of intelligence and surveillance flights in Nigeria,“ Karr said in an interview.
A former U.S. official said the aircraft is among several assets the Trump administration moved to Ghana in November.
(December 9, 2024)
According to the bloc, the departure of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger becomes effective one year after the announcement, in January 2025.
The trio have formed the Alliance of Sahel States after severing ties with France and pivoting towards Russia.
Gut zwei Monate nach dem Militärputsch in Niger hat Frankreich mit dem Abzug seiner Truppen aus dem westafrikanischen Staat begonnen. Der Generalstab bestätigte der Nachrichtenagentur dpa, dass der Rückzug heute losgegangen sei.
(Sept. 13, 2023)
The Biden administration has not officially declared the removal of President Mohammad Bazoum a coup, a legal move that would require the U.S. to cut off military assistance under U.S. law.
Since the coup, current and former U.S. officials have stressed that there might still be some hope the U.S. could reach an agreement to resume counterterrorism efforts.
(25.09.2023)
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday 1,500 troops would withdraw by the end of the year, dealing a huge blow to French influence and counter-insurgency operations in the Sahel region.
(September 25, 2023)
“We are putting an end to our military cooperation with the de facto authorities of Niger because they don’t want to fight terrorism anymore,” Macron said regarding the military leaders who took over rule of the northwest African country.
(September 28, 2023)
Burkina‘s military leaders earlier this month signed a mutual defence pact with counterparts in Mali and Niger.
(September 28, 2023)
Since the country’s first coup in January 2022, the number of people killed by Islamic extremists has nearly tripled compared with the 18 months before, according to a recent report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
(17.09.2023)
All three countries have undergone coups since 2020, most recently Niger, where soldiers in July overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum.
The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has threatened to intervene militarily in Niger over the coup.
Mali and Burkina Faso quickly responded by saying that any such operation would be deemed a “declaration of war” against them.
All three countries have undergone coups since 2020, most recently Niger, where soldiers in July overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum.
The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has threatened to intervene militarily in Niger over the coup.
Mali and Burkina Faso quickly responded by saying that any such operation would be deemed a “declaration of war” against them.
All three states were members of the France-supported G5 Sahel alliance joint force with Chad and Mauritania, launched in 2017 to tackle extremists in the region.
Mali has since left the dormant organisation after a military coup, while deposed Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum said in May last year that the force is now “dead” following Mali’s departure.
The US government is considering whether to assassinate the leaders of the new military administration in Niger, who seized power in late July, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said.
While the White House is “not satisfied” with events in the former French colony, it does not want to rely on military intervention by Niger’s regional neighbors, the assessment released by the SVR on Thursday claimed. Washington considers that a ‘wetwork’ solution by a proxy would be preferable to military action by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Russian agency said.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to say how many personnel would be departing and how many were repositioning within Niger from Air Base 101 in Niamey, the capital, to Air Base 201 in the city of Agadez.
Before this movement, there were 1,100 troops in the West African country.
“The government has already revoked the deals that allow for the French troops to operate on our territory,” Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine told reporters in the capital, Niamey, on Monday. “They’re here illegally. Talks are underway, which should allow for a swift withdrawal.”
(02.09.2023)
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside a French military base in Niger‘s capital Niamey on Saturday demanding that its troops leave in the wake of a military coup that has widespread popular support but which Paris refuses to recognise.
(August 6, 2023)
Niger is a target of imperialism for many reasons. Its natural resources include uranium, which supplies up to one third of France’s entire electrical grid. Yet Niger remains one of the poorest countries in the world with the majority of its over 27 million people lacking access to their own electricity. Niger also holds strategic importance to the U.S. military as a hub for its drone operations in Central Africa, used to maintain U.S. influence in the region as well as assist in French military interventions.
In addition to 1,500 French troops, there are over 1,000 U.S. troops stationed in Niger, which the U.S. government now refuses to withdraw, despite the security agreements between the U.S. and Niger being suspended and multiple European countries evacuating their citizens. The U.S. military machine is digging in, hoping to restore the pro-imperialist government by whatever means necessary.
In the Horn of Africa, we have a saying which denotes the importance of experience. We say, “Ask the one who has experienced it.” Civil conflicts and good-intentioned foreign forces sent to a country never solve a country’s real problems and this is even more so when one is acting on behalf of the others, who take advantage of the bounties of that country.
(August 22, 2023)
The situation is complicated by the fact that three other members of the 15-member ECOWAS are suspended because they have had their own military coups in recent years. These countries — Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, all former French colonies in the Sahel — have indicated they may side with Niger’s military government in the event of a war.
In Reaktion auf den Umsturz in Niamey haben Berlin und Paris jedenfalls gemeinsam Sanktionen gegen führende Mitglieder der Junta vorgeschlagen, was der EU-Außenbeauftragte Josep Borrell aufgegriffen hat. Baerbock betonte, dass man sich dabei eng abgestimmt habe mit der Regionalorganisation Ecowas, der 15 westafrikanische Staaten angehören.
Following in the footsteps of the West African regional body ECOWAS, the EU aims to slap the same sanctions on the junta that seized power in Niger several weeks ago, EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell confirmed in Toledo, Spain on Wednesday (30 August).
On Wednesday, the oil-rich nation of Gabon became the eighth Central or West African country to be hit by a military takeover in the last three years. The EU has not been training Gabon‘s armed forces -– although French troops have -– but it has funded and taught troops in Mali and Niger.
Central Africa‘s political bloc, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), condemned the coup in a statement, saying it planned an „imminent“ meeting of heads of state to determine how to respond. It did not give a date.
The African Union‘s Peace and Security Council will meet on Thursday to discuss the coup, a spokesperson for the African Union Commission chair said.