NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — We have a follow-up and some good news on a story we brought you last month about Air National Guard troops from the Niagara Falls airbase on a difficult mission to a West African nation in political turmoil.
Members of the 107th Attack Wing of the Air National Guard at Niagara Falls first deployed last fall for a projected six-month mission to Niger in West Africa to use MQ-9 Reaper drones to keep watch over ISIS-related terrrorist groups in North Africa.
The U.S. military had a security agreement to do so with that country's leaders.
But a military coup seized power in Niger last summer, and the new military leaders told the United States that its forces at two key airbases must leave by September. That was even as Russian mercenary forces were welcomed in by the new Niger government.
That left some 107th troops feeling somewhat cut off with an extended deployment. Family concerns prompted U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy to seek more information last month from the Pentagon.
Now the U.S. Defense Department is pulling out of those bases, with sources telling 2 On Your Side that the remaining members of the 107th are now heading home to Niagara Falls.
A final pullout of U.S. troops and most equipment should be completed in August, according to the Pentagon, which spent over $100 million to build and equip the Niger bases.
Other published reports says U.S. diplomats with the Biden Administration and military leaders are now trying to find other African nations that might be more receptive to hosting similar surveillance missions as U.S. forces leave Niger.
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