US military resumes drone, crewed aircraft operations in post-coup Niger

The United States military has resumed operations in Niger, flying drones and other aircraft out of airbases in the country more than a month after a coup halted activities, the head of Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa said. Since the July coup that removed President Mohamed Bazoum, the approximately 1,100 US soldiers deployed in the West African country have been confined to their military bases. General James Hecker said on Wednesday that negotiations with the military rulers of Niger resulted in some intelligence and surveillance missions resuming. "For a while, we weren't doing any missions on the bases, they pretty much closed down the airfields," Hecker told reporters at the annual Air and Space Forces Association convention. "Through the diplomatic process, we are now doing, I wouldn't say 100 percent of the missions that we were doing before, but we're doing a large amount of missions that we're doing before," he said.