By Enyichukwu Enemanna
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday arrived Niger for a rare visit to the West African country seen as one of the poorest countries of the world.
Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to visit the former French colony, where both France and the United States maintain forces to battle jihadist insurgencies in the troubled Sahel region.
Blinken is expected to announce more US assistance to Niger, which returned to stability in 2011 after a history of coups.
He began his visit by meeting former violent extremists who have been rehabilitated through a vocational training programme backed by $20 million in US funding.
The programme is about “giving them a better choice” and is “from our perspective, very much a model” for the region, Blinken said afterward.
A senior US official in Blinken’s entourage said the trip was meant to support the efforts of Niger under President Mohamed Bazoum, a vocal critic of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries increasingly active on the continent.
“They are making the right choices, we think, to help deal with the types of threats that are common across the Sahel. So, we are trying to highlight a positive example,” the official told reporters en route to Niamey, on condition of anonymity.
The United States also wants to help Niger “professionalise” its armed forces to reduce civilian casualties when responding to jihadist violence, she added.
“Frankly, Niger is in a very difficult position. Despite all those challenges, the leadership is really trying to do the right thing,” she said.
She also pointed to environmental threats. Niger is one of the countries worst hit by climate change, losing 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of arable land each year to desert.
