The Intercept: U.S. Military Is Building a $100 Million Drone Base in Africa
FROM HIGH ABOVE, Agadez almost blends into the cocoa-colored wasteland that surrounds it. Only when you descend farther can you make out a city that curves around an airfield before fading into the desert. Once a nexus for camel caravans hauling tea and salt across the Sahara, Agadez is now a West African paradise for people smugglers and a way station for refugees and migrants intent on reaching Europe’s shores by any means necessary.
Africans fleeing unrest and poverty are not, however, the only foreigners making their way to this town in the center of Niger. U.S. military documents reveal new information about an American drone base under construction on the outskirts of the city. The long-planned project — considered the most important U.S. military construction effort in Africa, according to formerly secret files obtained by The Intercept through the Freedom of Information Act — is slated to cost $100 million, and is just one of a number of recent American military initiatives in the impoverished nation.
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More News On A New U.S. Drone Base In Africa
US Building '$50 Million Drone Base' in Niger -- Newsweek
The US put a $100 million drone base next to a world heritage site -- VICE News
Pentagon Confirms Plans to Build Drone Base in Africa's Poorest Country -- Sputnik
US invests $50m in Niger drone base for counterterrorism -- BBC
US Agadez Drone Base In Niger To Cost At Least $50 Million -- IBTimes
Key US drone hub in Africa doubles in price to $100mn – report -- RT
