18 October 2018 :
The US is expanding its drone operations to Libya and Niger. According to an article published by the Italian researcher Marco Cochi on Eastwest.eu, the United States extended the use of drones for anti-terrorist operations to Libya and Niger. As is known, Hands off Cain in his annual report takes into account the "extrajudicial executions" carried out by the US with drones. These operations, launched in 2002 under the Bush administration, are monitored by the New America Foundation in Washington and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London, which place them in 4 countries: Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan. The article by Cochi, citing the New York Times as a source, reports 5 attacks with Predator drones that would have already been carried out on Libyan soil. It is unclear instead whether the raids in Niger have already begun, or whether they are still under preparation after the Niger government in November 2017 authorized the US to arm its drones. It is estimated that currently drones take off from a secret military base in Dirkou, about 250 km south of the Libyan border, where MQ-9 Reaper drones were transferred from the American bases of Sigonella and Niscemi in Sicily and from the Air Base 101 of Niamey. By the beginning of 2019, the construction of a second US secret base dedicated to drone operations, Air Base 201, in the Niger desert, near the city of Agadez, in the center of the state, would have to finish. The new base would be in a position equidistant from Libya, Chad, Nigeria and Mali, all areas of strategic interest for the fight against Islamist terrorism led by the US.
