Scores of Russian military instructors have arrived in Niamey, Niger republic as part of a new agreement with the country’s junta, which has cut links with the West.
The military personnel arrived along with a state-of-the-art air defence system.
They are expected to install the system and teach Niger’s army how to use it.
The West African country is one of several in the Sahel region ruled by military authorities to have recently strengthened ties with Russia.
A spokesperson for Niger’s military government on Friday said the Russians were in the country to train soldiers.
In an attached video, a serviceman of the corps said in French that they were there to “develop military cooperation” between the countries and had brought “various special military equipment” to help with training.
Footage of the Russian instructors unloading a cargo plane full of equipment was broadcast on Niger’s state television.
Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown last year by the junta, which has since cut military and diplomatic ties with France – the former colonial power – and revoked an agreement with the US.
Niger had already been suspended from Ecowas – which has been urging the country to return to democratic rule along with Burkina Faso and Mali – but in January, the junta-led countries announced they would quit the bloc.
Niger has been facing increased violence by the Islamic State group, as well as the continuing threat of Boko Haram militants along its border with Nigeria.
Earlier this week, at least six soldiers were killed in a blast in the Tillabery region near the border with Mali.
Niger’s defence ministry, which confirmed the attack, said an army patrol vehicle hit a landmine near the south-western village of Tingara earlier this week, killing some of the soldiers. Others were wounded and were taken to hospital.
