Russian military trainers arrived in Niger amidst worsening relations with the US.

State television in Niger has broadcast footage of Russian military trainers arriving in the country aboard a plane equipped with military supplies to boost its air defenses amid deteriorating relations between Niger and the U.S.

Two Russian trainers were filmed in front of the plane wearing military uniforms, caps and face coverings. The plane arrived Wednesday night, the report said, and carried military supplies to help Niger improve its air defenses.

“We are here to train the Nigerian army to use the military equipment that is here,” one of the Russian trainers said in French in Thursday’s broadcast. “We are here to develop military cooperation between Russia and Niger.”

Until recently, Washington considered Niger a key partner and ally in a region swept by attempted coups in recent years.

A U.S. airbase was established as the heart of Niger’s counter insurgency operations in the sub-Saharan region known as the Sahel. Since 2012, the region has been gripped by a worsening insurgency fought by groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

The U.S. invested heavily in training Niger’s forces to beat back the insurgency that has ravaged the country and its neighbors, But last summer, some of those elite U.S.-trained forces took part in a coup that ousted the elected president.

U.S. relations with Niger took a further downturn last month when the junta announced on state television the flights from its airbase were illegal and that it no longer recognized the American military presence in the country. The junta criticized the U.S. for trying to force it to choose between partners, warning them against cooperating with Russia and Iran.

Niamey has yet to order American troops out, U.S. officials have said.

The broadcast said the arrival of Russian trainers followed a call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country’s military leaders in March. Niger’s military leaders are seeking to diversify their partnerships and achieve greater sovereignty, the broadcast said.

“What we are witnessing with Mali, Burkina Faso, and now Niger is a renewal in their military strategy because they no longer want to have Western militaries on their territories,” he told hicginewsagency

“Russia is trying to show that it can outpace the US in Africa. The Russians see countries that are in crisis, and they come in to help. Once it’s done, they have a stronghold there and they try to have a base and try to get out the former forces, whether the US or European forces or even those who are under the flag of the United Nations.”

Earlier this year, a group of Russian soldiers arrived in Burkina Faso amonths after the junta-led nation expelled French troops from its soil.

Wagner mercenaries had previously operated the central African Republic (another former French colony) since at least 2018, training the local army and combating rebels in the nation’s civil conflict.

Security consultant Mamadou Adje told CNN that Russia’s support for Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso will be more profitable to their junta leaders who will not be pressured by the Russians into ensuring a swift return to democracy.

“The fact that they will have the support and the protection of the Russians who will not question the democratic setting of their military governments … made them decide to be with the Russians and not the Americans,” said Adje, a retired Senegalese colonel who previously served in Mali and Burkina Faso under West African regional bloc ECOWAS.

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