Niger said it was terminating its military cooperation agreement with the United States, ordering 1,000 members of American forces to leave the country and upsetting U.S. strategy in the region.

The announcement by the West African country’s military junta came Saturday after meetings last week with a delegation from Washington and the U.S. commander for Africa, Gen. Michael E. Langley. The move is in line with the recent trend of countries in the Sahel, an arid region south of the Sahara, to cut ties with Western countries. Instead, they are increasingly entering into partnerships with Russia.

American officials also expressed concern at the meetings about several other issues, including whether Nigeria’s military government is close to a deal to give Iran access to Niger’s vast uranium reserves, which has raised concerns previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Niger’s rejection of military ties with the United States follows retreat from Niger by troops from France, the former colonial power that has led foreign counterterrorism efforts against jihadist groups in West Africa over the past decade but which has recently been perceived as a Pariah in the region.

“The American presence in the territory of the Republic of Niger is illegal,” Nigerian military spokesman Colonel Amadou Abdramane said on national television. He added that the U.S. military presence “violates all constitutional and democratic rules that would require that the sovereign people be consulted – particularly by their elected officials – about the stationing of a foreign army on their territory.”

Matthew Miller, the US State Department’s top spokesman, said it was in contact with the ruling military junta, known as the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), about the move.

“We are aware of the statement by the CNSP in Niger, which follows open high-level discussions in Niamey this week about our concerns about the development of the CNSP,” he said in a Message on Xformerly Twitter.

Many of the Americans sent to Niger are stationed there US Air Force Base 201, a six-year-old, $110 million installation in the country’s desert north. But since the military coup that toppled President Mohamed Bazoum and brought the junta to power last July, troops there have been inactive and most of their drones grounded.

Because of the coup, the United States had to do this Suspend security measures and development aid for Niger.

Mr Bazoum, the country’s elected president, remains under arrest eight months after he was deposed. But the United States had done it wanted maintain the partnership with the country.

A senior U.S. military official said Sunday there were no immediate changes to the status of about 1,000 American military personnel stationed in the country. The Pentagon continues to conduct surveillance drone flights from Air Force Base 201 to protect U.S. troops and alert Nigerian authorities if the flights detect an imminent terrorist threat.

“The withdrawal of the security agreement is not quite a direct exclusion of the American military presence, as was the case with the French,” said Hannah Rae Armstrong, an analyst focused on peace and security in the Sahel. “It is more of an aggressive negotiating tactic to get more benefits from cooperation with the Americans.”

In Niger, the decision was framed in terms of “sovereignty” – rhetoric intended to resonate with the public.

“The goal of American policy is not to help fight armed groups, but to maintain control and counter the growing influence of countries like Russia, China and Turkey in the region,” wrote Abdoulaye Sissoko, a Nigerian Columnist, in a popular Nigerian news broadcast website. “There is no public evidence that American bases in Niger have proven useful.”

American officials say they have tried for months to prevent a formal break in relations with the Nigerian junta.

The new US ambassador to Niger, Kathleen FitzGibbon, one of Washington’s top Africa specialists, has been holding regular talks with the junta since taking office at the beginning of the year.

During a trip to Niger in December, Molly Phee, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said the United States intended to resume security and development cooperation with Niger, even as she called for a rapid transition to civilian rule and the release of Mr. Niger .Bazoum.

But the Pentagon has prepared for the worst-case scenario if the talks fail. The Defense Ministry is discussing with several West African coastal states the establishment of new drone bases to replace the base in landlocked Niger. The talks are still in the early stages, military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational issues.

J. Peter Pham, a former U.S. special envoy to the Sahel, said Washington would have to “wait and see” how Niger would implement the new approach.

“The potential consequences go beyond the not insignificant damage to counterterrorism and intelligence efforts caused by the loss of access to bases in Niger,” Pham said, “but also to the broader damage to America’s standing on the continent. “

The Biden administration officially recognized last October what most countries had declared months earlier: that the military takeover in Niger last July was a coup.

Biden administration officials had ignored that statement for weeks because the word “coup” has broad political implications. Congress has mandated that the United States halt all economic and military assistance to any government installed by a military coup until democracy is restored.

But the government eventually concluded that efforts to restore Niger’s democratically elected government to power had failed and that aid that had not already been restricted would be withdrawn. State Department officials said nearly $200 million in aid temporarily suspended in August would be suspended. About $442 million in trade and agricultural aid will also be suspended.

In Washington, the Biden administration harbored increasingly grim hopes that the military junta would reverse its seizure of power and agree to restore a democratically elected government.

The junta’s announcement is part of a major shift in the dynamic between the country and its former Western partners.

“It reflects a real shift in the balance of power,” Ms. Armstrong said. “Over the last decade, Niger has repeatedly requested security assistance and assistance. Now it is the US that is being asked to beg for military forces and bases to remain in the country.”

The entire military approach in the Sahel needs to be reformed, said El Hadj Djitteye, director of the Timbuktu Center for Strategic Studies on the Sahel, a Mali-based think tank.

“Western governments, including the United States and France, have failed to work closely with African governments and civilians on economic and military development,” Djitteye said. This, he said, has fueled the widespread perception that their presence in the region is a continuation of “the old colonial pattern that puts colonial interests first and African interests second.”