Marines guarding the U.S. embassy in Niger will stay in place regardless of a partial evacuation of nonessential embassy personnel because the nation stays gripped by a coup, the State Division mentioned Thursday.
The Pentagon mentioned there was no change in navy posture within the West African nation, which was thrown into political turmoil final week, and that the State Division had not requested any help with the evacuation.
“We proceed to watch this fluid and evolving scenario and reiterate our give attention to a diplomatic answer,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s high spokesman, mentioned in a press release to the press Thursday morning.
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On Tuesday, Ryder instructed reporters that U.S. troops would keep within the nation regardless of what seems to be a coup in opposition to Niger’s democratically elected chief, President Mohamed Bazoum, who was put below home arrest late final week when a part of the nation’s navy mutinied.
A navy officer with the group of mutinous troops made a TV broadcast early July 27 to declare a curfew and the closing of the nation’s borders till the scenario stabilizes, The Related Press reported.
The subsequent day, coup leaders named Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani as the brand new head of state.
The U.S. navy is stationed in Niger to conduct drone surveillance and counter extremism operations. In 2019, the U.S. spent $110 million constructing a brand new air base within the nation to assist drone operations.
In 2017, Islamic State militants killed 4 American Army troopers close to a village in northwestern Niger.
A State Division spokesperson instructed Army.com on Thursday that the detachment of Marines on the embassy within the capital Niamey “will stay there working with the Diplomatic Safety Service to help with embassy safety duties.”
Though the U.S. navy — particularly the Marine Corps — usually performs a big position within the evacuation of civilians from embassies and international international locations amid crises and unrest, the Pentagon says that, thus far, it has not been requested to leap in.
“The Division of State has not requested DoD personnel or gear as a part of the ordered departure,” Ryder mentioned.
Bazoum was elected president two years in the past within the nation’s first peaceable, democratic switch of energy since its independence from France in 1960. He has not resigned his workplace since being detained.
Ryder instructed reporters Tuesday that, whereas the safety cooperation between the U.S. and Nigerien navy has been suspended, “we keep shut contact with our Niger navy counterparts within the nation, because the scenario continues to unfold” and “when needed [and] surroundings allowing,” service members are nonetheless in a position to go off base to foster that engagement.
The State Division ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel from the embassy in Niamey on Tuesday night, citing “ongoing developments in Niger” and “an abundance of warning.”
In its assertion, the State Division cautioned U.S. residents within the nation that “business flight choices are restricted” and that solely restricted emergency companies can be out there on the embassy going ahead.
Within the final embassy evacuation — of the U.S. embassy in Sudan in April — the Marine Corps detachment performed a key and heroic position.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro mentioned that the detachment of 12 Marines set an instance in “defending the lifetime of the ambassador and the lives of all of the individuals who had been on the embassy,” calling it “nothing wanting extraordinary.”
Del Toro introduced every of the Marines with awards for his or her heroism.
In late April, about 100 U.S. troops in three MH-47 Chinook helicopters airlifted all of roughly 70 remaining American workers from the Sudanese embassy to Ethiopia, The Related Press reported on the time.
— Konstantin Toropin might be reached at konstantin.toropin@navy.com. Observe him on Twitter @ktoropin.
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