The US Department of Defense announced that the United States will temporarily withdraw its soldiers from Chad, following a decision to pull its forces from neighboring Niger. Pentagon spokesperson, General Pat Ryder, stated in a press conference on Thursday that the US military command in Africa is “currently reviewing the repositioning of some US military forces in Chad, some of which were already scheduled to leave.” He added that this is “a temporary step in our ongoing review of security cooperation, which will resume after the presidential elections on May 6 in Chad.”
In a message to the Minister of Armed Forces, the Chief of Staff of the Chadian Air Force called for the withdrawal of American soldiers in early April, citing the lack of an agreement permitting their presence. The United States currently deploys about 100 soldiers in Chad as part of efforts to combat extremists in the Sahel region. In Niger, which is a key focal point for US and French strategies to combat extremists in West Africa, the military council that has been in power since July last year announced that it has canceled the military cooperation agreement with Washington, stating that the US presence has now become “illegal.”
