The Defense Department announced on Friday that the US will pull dozens of special forces soldiers from Chad, days after announcing it would also withdraw troops from neighboring Niger.
Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder said a portion of the US troops in Chad would reposition out of the country.
He said it was a “temporary step” as part of an ongoing review of security cooperation with Chad, which would resume after the country's May 6 presidential election.
The US military is maintaining about 100 soldiers stationed in Chad to serve the strategy of dealing with extremist armed groups in the Sahel region.
In the letter dated April 4 to Chad's minister of armed forces, Air Force Chief of Staff Idriss Amine Ahmed said he had told the US defense attache to halt US activities at Adji Kossei Air Base after “Americans” had failed to provide documents justifying their presence there.
Chadian government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah said the presence of US troops in the country stems from a shared commitment to combat terrorism. But, he added, “concerns have arisen from the army's General Staff about such presence.”
Koulamallah said, “The US government decided to temporarily withdraw troops from Chad to acknowledge this concern.”
He affirmed that the US move does not represent a severance of cooperation between the two countries in the fight against terrorism.
Chad is the second country in Africa where the US announced the withdrawal of its troops, after neighboring Niger.
US political and diplomatic efforts have failed to come up with a form of security cooperation with the military authorities, currently ruling in Niger.
The US State Department announced that discussions have begun this week and will continue next week between the two sides for the orderly withdrawal of US forces from the country.
The US military has hundreds of troops stationed at a major airbase in northern Niger to fight terrorism in the Sahel region.
Niger's ruling junta, which ousted the democratically elected government in July 2023, announced its decision last month to immediately revoke a 2012 military cooperation deal with the US following contentious meetings between high-level officials on both sides in Niamey.
Spokesperson for Niger's junta, Col. Amadou Abdramane, justified his country’s decision to revoke the military cooperation deal, accusing the US of “condescending attitude combined with the threat of reprisals against the people of Niger.”
