After the coup in July 2023, the military junta that seized power in Niger had demanded that the United States withdraw almost a thousand soldiers from the country.

According to the BBC, Russian troops arriving in Niger occupied a separate hangar at Airbase 101 near Niamey's Diori Hamani International Airport. This was reported by a US defense official on condition of anonymity.

Last year, Niger severed military agreements with France and the European Union that had helped the country's authorities fight Islamist insurgents. And in March 2024, the junta broke the agreement with the United States also, according to which about a thousand American soldiers were stationed in two airbases in the country.

It is not a very good situation, but in the short term it will become manageable, said an American official on condition of anonymity.

Responding to Reuters' question about the arrival of Russian troops at the aforesaid American airbase, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin played down any risk to American troops or the chance that Russian troops might get close to US military hardware.

"The Russians are in a separate compound and don't have access to US forces or access to our equipment," Austin told a press conference in Honolulu.