PARIS/DAKAR ¨C France¡¯s decision to pull 1,500 troops from Niger leaves a gaping hole in Western efforts to counter a decadelong Islamist insurgency and could bolster Russian influence across the vast, insecure scrublands of West Africa, analysts and diplomats said.
Niger was the West¡¯s last key ally in the central Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert until a July 26 coup brought in a military junta which called for France to leave.
France¡¯s forces have already been kicked out of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso following coups in those countries, weakening its influence in its former colonies amid a wave of anti-French sentiment.
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