“AFRICOM [U.S. Africa Command] is planning to reposition some U.S. forces out of Chad, some of which were already scheduled to depart,” U.S. Department of Defense spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters at a Pentagon press conference Thursday, confirming an earlier report that day by the New York Times (NYT). “This is a temporary measure, part of an ongoing review of our security cooperation, which will resume following Chad’s presidential elections on May 6,” he added. Regarding Niger, Ryder confirmed that talks “began” in Niamey Thursday between U.S. Ambassador to Niger Kathleen FitzGibbon and Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman, USAFRICOM director of strategy, engagement, and programs, and the ruling junta “on an orderly and safe withdrawal of U.S. forces from Niger.” The Pentagon spokesman stressed that Washington remains “committed” to “countering violent extremist organizations in West Africa,” but did not say where the U.S. military personnel currently deployed in the region will be relocated. The U.S. has invested $110 million in a drone base in Niger that has been central to AFRICOM’s efforts to monitor violent extremist organizations, but the Pentagon spokesman would not say whether Washington has already identified an alternative location for the approximately 1,000 U.S. troops stationed there when pressed by reporters. The decision to withdraw U.S. special operations forces from Chad — about 75 Green Berets from the National Guard’s 20th Special Forces Group, according to the NYT — comes amid a broader breakdown in diplomatic and military relations between several Sahel nations — notably Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — and the West — particularly France, but also the United States — and a parallel deepening of ties between those same countries and Russia. In the case of Chad, until now a steadfast Western ally in the region, it remains unclear whether the U.S. military’s departure — with the first troops expected to fly home via Germany this weekend, the NYT and Washington Post reported Thursday — will be permanent, despite Ryder’s statement. The Pentagon’s decision follows a letter sent April 8 by Chadian air force chief of staff Gen. Idriss Amine Ahmed to the U.S. defense attaché at the embassy in N’Djamena asking him to “immediately suspend military activities” at the Air Base 101 in N’Djamena (BAK), where U.S. troops train Chadian special forces to fight the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. The letter “surprised and puzzled American diplomats and military officials,” two U.S. officials told the NYT, speaking on condition of anonymity, because it did not go through official diplomatic channels and appeared to be a negotiating tactic by elements within the Chadian military and government to pressure Washington into a more favorable agreement ahead of the May elections, the paper reported, citing unnamed sources. Significantly, unlike what has happened in Niger with the United States — and in Mali, Burkina Faso and also Niger with France — Chad’s junta leader, Gen. Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, has not asked the U.S. military to leave, nor has he distanced himself from France, by far his most important ally in the region. The NYT, however, quotes analysts as saying that “the French withdrawal is inevitable,” given Mahamat Déby Itno’s recent deepening of ties with the Sahel’s other coup leaders and even with Russia, where he traveled earlier this year to meet with President Vladimir Putin. Read Also: Washington and Niamey open discussions on withdrawal of troops from Niger (Portuguese version)