When did US forces arrive in Niger?
(ABC) They arrived in early 2013 to help the French military that had intervened in neighboring Mali the year before. The French had moved into Mali after an Al Qaeda affiliated group and tribal groups took over the vast northern part of the country and were moving toward the capital of Mali. As part of the U.S. effort to assist that mission then-President Barack Obama ordered 150 U.S. military personnel to set up a surveillance drone operation over Mali that would fly from Niger’s capital of Niamey.
The SF is there to train the locals. They try and avoid hot spots but the whole sub-Sahara is really combat zone.