US military will complete withdrawal from Niger by mid-September: Pentagon

American troops are ordered out of Niger by mid-September, the decision was jointly agreed upon by Nigerien and U.S. officials.

Niger's decision to kick out American forces dealt a blow to U.S. military operations in the Sahel, a vast region south of the Sahara desert where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate.

The rupture in military cooperation followed last July's ouster of the country’s democratically elected president by mutinous soldiers. A few months later, the ruling junta asked French forces to leave and turned to the Russian mercenary group Wagner for security assistance.