Last part of the article is quite funny
This does make safeguarding U.S. security interests in the Sahel that much harder,” Maj. Gen. Kenneth P. Ekman of the Air Force, tasked with overseeing the withdrawal, told the Times in July.“The threats from ISIS and Al Qaeda in the region are getting worse every day.”
They claim to be there to protect against ISIS and Al Qaeda while they are USA and Israel proxy army allies
However, some defense experts and former U.S. officials who previously spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation believed that withdrawing forces from Niger was the right decision, given that they were falling under an increasing amount of danger from the country’s hostile government and population. Boots on the ground are not necessarily needed to conduct counterterrorism operations, as the U.S. has other extensive military and intelligence capabilities, experts told the DCNF.
The other extensive military and intelligence capabilities are the allied ISIS and Al Qaeda proxies