Republican congressman Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) put out a statement claiming that troops in Niger are stuck.
“The Biden Administration and the State Department are engaged in a massive cover-up,” Gaetz told The Intercept. “They are hiding the true conditions on the ground of U.S. diplomatic relations in Niger and are effectively abandoning our troops in that country with no help in sight.”
Recently, Niger revoked an agreement allowing US troops and civilian Defense Department employees to operate inside the country. Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, spokesperson for Nirger’s ruling junta took to the TV airwaves to denounce the United States. Since then, Pentagon officials have been trying to clarify what the next steps should be.
“The U.S. government continues to work to obtain clarification,” Gen. Michael Langley, the chief of U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM told reporters recently.
Gaetz’s claimed that the US Embassy in Niger was “covering up the failure of their US diplomatic efforts in Niger.” The congressman’s report said that the embassy is “dismissing or suppressing” intelligence from the Air Forces’s Office of Special Investigations.
“When our AFRICOM leaders look to us to provide atmospherics on the ground, they go to the Embassy first and hear a watered down or false story than what is being reported,” according to one service member quoted in the report. “I know of at least 3 reports from OSI about Nigerien sentiment that have been discredited by the Embassy and turned out to be 100% true.” (The State Department denied the allegations but did not provide a statement on the record.)
Gaetz said, “They are suppressing intelligence because they don’t want to acknowledge that their multibillion-dollar flop for Niger to be centerpiece of their Africa Strategy has been a complete and total failure.”
According to the Congressman, the group of United States personnel are “functionally stranded” inside the country because “no flights are authorized by Niger to enter or exit the country” that are in support of US DOD missions.
Some of those flights included food and medical supplies.
“Some diplomatic clearances for military flights have recently been denied or not responded to, which has forced extended deployments in some cases,” General Langley said.
Not long after Gaetz published his report the Pentagon announced that they would be pulling the 1,100 troups of of Niger.
The ruling government has recently become hostile to the West. The ruling military commanders have booted out the French and Americans. They have also refused to allow German and Italian personnel to enter the country.
According to one report, the country is welcoming Russian military instructors.
WTF? There are 1,000 US troops trapped in Niger. Does Biden have a plan to evacuate them or is he planning to leave them there? pic.twitter.com/r6dv55y7Ft
— @amuse (@amuse) April 19, 2024
