Reuters: US security cooperation with Niger is expanding.

Reuters: US security cooperation with Niger is expanding.

Flight tracking data shows that the reconnaissance operation was contracted by Mississippi-based Tenax Aerospace, which has close ties to the US military.

Regional security expert Liam Carr said the operation showed the US was rebuilding its operational capacity in the region after US forces withdrew from a base in Niger last year.

Trump placed Nigeria on a list of countries of “special concern” in early November, claiming that “Christians in Nigeria face an existential threat” and also threatened in a message that “if Nigeria continues to allow Christians to be killed, the US will immediately cut off all aid to Nigeria.”

Trump also claimed to have ordered the US Department of War to prepare for possible military action.

Reuters previously reported that the West African country has asked the US government to deploy spy planes to northern Ivory Coast to conduct cross-border reconnaissance flights and step up the fight against militants linked to al-Qaeda in the Sahel region of Africa, two Ivorian security officials said.

The US lost access to its last base in West Africa last year when Niger expelled US forces from a $100 million drone base and turned to Russia for security assistance. The base was used to provide intelligence on groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS in the Sahel region of Africa.

According to the Global Terrorism Index, 3,885 people were killed in terrorist attacks in the region last year, half of the world’s total. The militants’ kidnapping of an American pilot working for a Christian mission in Niger’s capital in October highlighted the lack of US intelligence in the region.