US still has 'shared' security aims with Niger, US general says 

ABIDJAN, Aug 7: The United States still has "shared security objectives" with Niger, whose ruling junta demanded its forces leave the jihadist-hit West African nation, Major General Kenneth Ekman, a senior military officer for US Africa Command, has told AFP.

The US military on Monday withdrew from a final base in Niger -- a drone facility at Agadez -- and handed it over to the authorities in the Sahelian country, where military leaders seized power a year ago.

"We still have some shared security objectives. We have completely honoured their sovereignty. They asked us to leave, we obliged, and we have done that peacefully and respectfully," Ekman said in a telephone interview with AFP on Tuesday.
He said the next step would be to listen to Niger's needs "for a future security relationship with the United States".    —AFP