No one thought that in the entrenched US military base in Africa, there will also be a day when they will be forced to evacuate, what will happen?
According to US media reports, on April 22, the United States announced that it would discuss issues related to the withdrawal of US troops with the Nigerien military junta. If nothing else, two air bases in the United States will cease to exist, and one of them, a $110 million drone base, will also become history.
It is said that this drone base, which is one of the largest drone bases of the United States in the African region, once shut down, will directly affect the United States, and control the intelligence of almost the entire Sahel region, and there are at least 14 African countries in the Sahel region. In other words, U.S. control over the African region has been enormously weakened.
In fact, before the United States, the French army was boycotted in Niger.
At the end of July last year, after the coup d'état in Niger, French President Emmanuel Macron's controversial remarks that "there would be no Niger without France" led to the outbreak of anti-French sentiment among the Nigerien people, the Nigerien military government ordered the expulsion of the French ambassador, and the French army was also allowed to leave Niger within a time limit, in September last year, France "surrendered", Macron announced the recall of the ambassador to Niger, and the French army will withdraw from Niger in batches in December last year. The Nigerien military announced that the last French soldiers had evacuated Niger on the 22nd, and the century-long French military presence in Niger had finally been drawn up by the Nigeriens themselves.
However, what happened to the United States and France is not an isolated case, and the Italian and German troops in Africa have also withdrawn one after another, and the fundamental reason for this situation is the awakening of the African people's sense of independence.
As mentioned earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron's words angered the Nigerien people and made the Nigerien military junta make the decision to expel the French army, and similarly, Niger suddenly made the decision to expel the US military because the senior US military officials who visited Niger the day before were very arrogant in pointing fingers at Niger's relations with Iran and Russia, which eventually led to the United States becoming the target of exclusion.
So, the question is, what prompted the people of Niger to resist the colonial hegemony of the United States and the West so fiercely?
The Western media believe that the boycott of old colonial powers such as the United States and France in Africa is due to the presence of Wagner mercenaries from Russia. In recent years, Wagner's footprints have almost all over Africa, providing military assistance and related military training to many African countries, because of Russia's influence on the African region, French President Macron has a very bad attitude towards Russia, and has threatened to send troops to fight in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
But is this really the case? Is it really Wagner that is squeezing the strategic space of the United States and the West? In my opinion, of course, this is not the case. The United States and France have been operating in Africa for more than 100 years, and not to mention the withdrawal of the troops of these Western countries, but there are no less intelligence agencies and military organizations left behind. How can a newcomer compare Wagner's actions to Wagner's actions, which seem to be huge, but there are not many African countries that can really be affected, and it is difficult to have a real impact on the situation in Africa.
In the final analysis, it is a series of conflicts that have attracted the attention of Western countries and given space for the awakening of Africa's sense of independence. The reason why the West has relented is also because the Western countries are no longer able to open up a new battlefield in Africa, so they can only retreat to the next best thing, withdraw their forces from the open side of Africa, and turn to covert activities.
Therefore, for many anti-colonial and anti-hegemonic African countries, the West's retreat does not mean victory, but the beginning of a new round of struggle, but Africa is not fighting alone, and China will always be the most solid backing.
After the Middle East, there will be Africa, and where will Africa be after that? The death knell of Western hegemony has already sounded.