Western troops have been expelled from Africa's Sahel – so why are Italy's Carabinieri still there?

(COLUMBUS, OHIO) Western forces have largely beat a hasty retreat from Africa's coup-prone Sahel region in recent years.

In 2022, French forces departed Mali as insurgents made incursions into the capital, Bamako. A United Nations peacekeeping mission also left, with the security void filled by Russian forces . Burkina Faso and Chad followed suit, ordering French troops out in 2023 and 2025, respectively.

But Niger presents a different scenario. While the junta that came to power there in 2023 has expelled many Western forces from its borders, there is one exception: a contingent of about 350 Italian troops.

As a geopolitical security analyst who has advised the European Parliament on counterinsurgency in the Sahel , I believe that the Italian model – deploying a small numbers of highly skilled technical troops to train local personnel – offers an alternative to a large-scale Western military presence that led to serious local blowback.

The context of anti-Western sentiment

Between 2020 and 2023, six countries in the Sahel saw civilian governments replaced with military leaders. Many of these coupists capitalized on public discontent over deteriorating economies and security conditions to overthrow their predecessors .

But they also leaned into growing anti-Western sentiment .

From around 2013, Sahelian countries, including Mali and Niger, allowed military personnel from the United States, France and other Western countries to assist in efforts to counter jihadist and separatist movements throughout the region.

Despite the initial welcome for such interventions, local populations largely came to view these troops as ineffective vestiges of the colonial era. As such, they welcomed the anti-Western rhetoric of coup plotters.

Yet the military men who took over faced the same instability that undermined the governments they replaced. To compensate for the lack of Western military support, many governments in the region turned to Russia's Wagner Group, now named the "Africa Corps," for security needs .

Best known for its presence in Mali, the military group now controlled by the Russian Ministry of Defense has seemingly shifted tactics. Gone are brutal attacks against extremist groups and civilians alike, replaced by a more conservative, defense-focused strategy that some have argued places a greater burden on African forces .

Such developments have led NATO countries to worry about their dwindling influence amid growing instability along the security bloc's southern flank – an area that comprises the Middle East and North Africa region, as well as the Sahel. The security situation has also spurred internal displacement and external migration .

Furthermore, the withdrawal of the U.N.'s peacekeeping mission from Mali, as well as the forced departure of the U.N. resident coordinator from Niger in 2023 , indicates a growing local rejection of the status quo on international aid and security operations in the region.

A surge of violence

For civilians throughout the Sahel, the implications of the dangerous status quo are alarming. Since 2020, the area has accounted for the world's largest increase in the number of fatalities linked to militant Islamic groups .

Niger, which houses the world's eighth-largest reserves of uranium , is not immune to this surge of violence. On Jan. 29, 2026, the Islamic State Sahel Province took credit for an attack against the Diori Hamani civilian airport of Niamey, as well as the adjacent military airbase. Although no civilian or military deaths were reported, the attack signaled a potential shift in IS-Sahel's strategy in Niger and an emboldened strategy of attacking larger cities and infrastructure .

While the Russian foreign ministry claimed joint responsibility for neutralizing the attack along with the Nigerien armed forces, a contingent of Italian forces and its gendarmerie, known as the Carabinieri , were also present.

Since the withdrawal of all other Western and U.N. groups, the Italians, including the Carabinieri, have become the only Western force still in Niger.

Gendarmeries like the Carabinieri operate differently from conventional army forces. They mix military force with policing functions – a setup unfamiliar to countries such as the U.S. and the U.K. that tend to keep these roles separate.

Such a combination of mandates makes them ideal for certain tasks, such as training domestic military forces and quelling unrest in acute situations.

The Carabinieri also have experience investigating complex crimes – a skill developed over years as the special forces in high-profile mafia cases. This is particularly useful in the Sahel, as the tactics of jihadist groups progressively resemble those of organized criminal networks.

Over the years, Italy's Carabinieri have been invited by foreign governments emerging from armed conflict or fighting low-intensity conflicts to train local forces and help maintain order. Afghanistan, Kosovo and the Palestinian Authority have all turned to the Carabinieri as an effective and efficient alternative to traditional peacekeeping forces .

In the case of Niger, such an invitation reportedly arrived in Italy around December 2016 , when the then-government requested a contingent of 470 Italian military personnel, including the Carabinieri. The plan was to reinforce control over Nigerien territory, thereby stabilizing one of the main transit countries for migrants attempting to reach the Italian and European coasts.

Notably, this invitation was extended even after the change of government in Niger in 2021.

Carabinieri as a model

In 2023, when the Nigerien government forced the military, economic , and even media presences of France, the U.N. and the U.S. from the country, the Italians were permitted to stay.

The reasons, I believe, are threefold.

The first relates to the fact that Italy lacks the same reputation as a colonizing power that France – and also the U.S. – maintains among many governments and populations of the Global South.

Italy has a colonial past , of course, and its government forces committed atrocities in areas under Italian dominion in East Africa between the 1880s and 1941.

But as a result of its defeat in World War II, Italy was forced out of its overseas territories earlier than some of its European peers. Having avoided the subsequent turbulent decolonization movements experienced by, say, France, Great Britain or Belgium throughout the 1950s and '60s, Italy has largely been able to avoid postcolonial animosity, enabling it to maintain ambiguous ties with African and Arab states.

The second reason for the Italians' continued presence in Niger rests on ongoing diplomatic relations and strategically timed comments from the Italian government that have reassured current Nigerien authorities. Following the 2023 coup d'état, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called for a return to democracy, in line with other international voices. But he refused the idea of a Western-imposed military intervention even before one had been formally proposed.

Finally, the targeted, highly specialized nature of Italian operations has made them useful for Nigerien forces. The Italians' willingness and ability to cooperate with local authorities – along with the relatively large footprint that a small number of troops can leave – have left the Italians, and the Carabinieri more specifically, with a reputation for effectiveness. Moreover, their reduced size relative to the much larger U.S. and French operations has dampened any opposition from locals.

While the security void of departing Western forces has been partially filled by other actors, notably the Russian Africa Corps, the increased instability across neighboring countries has shown these forces' limits. In that environment, this small contingent of Italian forces may well make Italy the only actor in a position to negotiate for Western interests in the area.

This article is republished from The Conversation , a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Kaitlyn Rabe , The Ohio State University

Read more:

• Amid humanitarian crisis and ongoing fighting, Africa's war‑scarred Sahel region faces new threat: Ethno‑mercenaries
• Niger coup: Military takeover is a setback for democracy and US interests in West Africa
• Wagner Group setback in Mali challenges Moscow's strategy in Africa and the region's faith in Russian mercenaries

Kaitlyn Rabe, Vice President and General Manager of Mondo Internazionale APS and Senior Analyst with Minter Group Ltd, regularly consults with members of the Italian Armed Forces and consulted a Carabinieri officer to verify this article's accuracy.

The Conversation

This story was originally published June 16, 2026 at 9:04 AM.