Drone Base Rises in Saharan Dust
AIR BASE 201, Niger — Rising from African scrubland, a half-finished drone base represents the newest front line in America’s global shadow war.
Hundreds of personnel are feverishly working to complete a $110 million airfield that, when finished in the coming months, will be used to stalk or strike extremists deep in West and North Africa. Near the runway, Army Green Berets are training Nigerien forces to carry out counterterrorism raids or fend off an enemy ambush — like one that killed four American soldiers near the Mali border in October.
These missions reflect an American military buildup unfolding in remote places like Yemen, Somalia and West Africa. In Niger alone, the number of United States troops has doubled in the past few years, to about 800 — not to conduct unilateral combat missions, but to battle Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and associated groups with proxy forces and drone strikes.
“The base, and the more frequent flights that its opening will allow, will give us far more situational awareness and intelligence on a region that has been a hub of illicit and extremist activity,” said P. W. Singer, a strategist at New America, a think tank in Washington, who has written extensively about drones. “But it will also further involve us in yet more operations and fights that few Americans are even aware our military is in.”
In March, it was revealed that the United States had carried out four airstrikes in Libya between September and January. Soon after, the military acknowledged that Green Berets working with Nigerien forces had killed 11 Islamic State militants in a firefight in December.
That battle — along with at least 10 other previously unreported attacks on American troops in West Africa between 2015 and 2017 — underscored the fact that the deadly ambush in Niger was not an isolated episode. Nigerien forces and their American advisers are preparing other major operations to clear out militants, military officials say.
During a recent counterterrorism exercise in Niger that drew military personnel from 20 African and Western countries, many officers voiced concerns that America’s commit- ment in West Africa could fall victim to an impulse to pull out. “It’s important to still have support from the U. S. to help train my men, to help with our shortfalls,” said Colonel Major Moussa Salaou Barmou, commander of Niger’s Special Operations forces.
Building a new base in this remote, landlocked country marks the latest chapter in the United States’ contentious history of drone operations around the world.
Where American and Nigerien officials see enhanced security in drone operations, others fear a potentially destabilizing impact. “Eliminating jihadi military leaders through drone operations could temporarily disor- ganize insurgent groups,” said JeanHervé Jezequel, deputy director of the International Crisis Group’s West Africa project in Dakar, Senegal. “But eventually the void could also lead to the rise of new and younger leaders who are likely to engage into more violent and spectacular operations to assert their leadership.”
A visit in March to Air Base 201 revealed challenges. Commanders grapple with dust storms, scorching temperatures and lengthy part deliveries to fix equipment. All have put the project more than a year behind schedule and $22 million over budget. Americans have sought to allay fears of locals that the base, just outside the city of Agadez, could be a target for terrorist attacks.
Bill Roggio, editor of a website that tracks military strikes against militant groups, said having drone operations in Agadez had two main advantages. First, he said, the base will be centrally located to conduct operations throughout the Sahel, a vast area of the Sahara that has been seized by a wave of terrorism. Second, Agadez is isolated, keeping the operations away from prying eyes.
Eventually, the plan is to turn Air Base 201 over to the Nigerien military. Security forces now jointly patrol the 890- hectare site. A civil affairs team has worked closely with civic, religious and educational leaders in Agadez to help address the high unemployment and ill- equipped schools — shortcomings that extremists can exploit.
On the sidelines of the recent exercise, Major General J. Marcus Hicks, the head of American Special Operations forces in Africa, put it this way: “This is an insurance policy that’s very inexpensive, and I think we need to keep paying into it.”
A $110 million U.S. airfield is being built in African scrubland.