It has been reported that the US Deputy Secretary of State has visited the African state of Niger and given the military leaders there a warning to reinstate the recently deposed President Mohamed Bazoumotherwise bad things will happen to them.
Economic sanctions by the US have already been announced on the state of Niger but there are reports that ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) a coalition of former French, English and Portuguese colonial states in West Africa are preparing to invade Niger to reinstate the deposed leader.
If that happens this might begin a wider conflict in Africa as other states say they are against military intervention and may support Niger militarily (Mali, Burkino Faso, Algeria) given how things turned out after military intervention in Libya.
Niger has significant Uranium reserves from which France as well as other states of the European Union get Uranium at discounted prices or at least they did before the President of Niger was deposed on 26 July 2023.
Getting information on US military bases in Africa (and elsewhere) is not straight forward as it doesn't seem to be something that one just goes to Wikipedia to find. It is reported that the US have their second largest African military base in Niger, a US military drone base, with the aptly named MQ-9 Reaper Drones, fighter aircraft, combat helicopters and about 1100 troops. From 2019 the Americans have been active in flying drones out from that base and around the region in search of "radical islamists / ISIS" to monitor, target and eliminate presumably as part of the American Led Global War on Terror. The French have their own military base in Niger with fighter aircraft, combat helicopter, drones and about 1500 troops. The coup leaders of Niger have declared a no fly zone over Niger which means these base are currently on lockdown. The coup leaders would like them all to leave but that is unlikely to happen any time soon.
The major nation in ECOWAS is Nigeria which has major oil and gas fields. It seems their major concern is what is going to happen to the construction of a $13 billion 5600 km trans Saharan gas pipeline that is planned to carry Nigerian gas from Nigeria, through Niger, through Algeria then across the Mediterranean to supply Europe with natural gas. Nigeria will be the main beneficiary in terms of investment and jobs as well as being able to sell their gas but Niger and Algeria will also benefit. Europe needs gas as an alternative to the now sanctioned Russian gas (aided by the blowing up of the Nordstream pipelines on 26 Sep 2022). It seems Algeria's major concern is that if there is a military intervention in Niger to restore the deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, that that might encourage expansion of influence by France and America in the region.
The ECOWAS alliance of West African Nations are to hold a meeting today to discuss the situation in Niger. The latest reported news is that inside Nigeria there are too many voices against military intervention for Nigeria's involvement and without Nigeria's involvement it is unlikely that ECOWAS will get involved militarily at least for the time being, so it looks like the situation is not going to escalate.
So diplomacy and letting the dust settle may be the order of the day with pressure applied through possible economic sanctions. I am not hundred percent certain at the moment what the coup in Niger was all about but it seems that the coup leaders are busy trying to stabilize the situation with the appointment of a former finance minister as PM. There doesn't appear to be any unrest in Niger and that the coup has a certain level of internal support.
