The US military is temporarily moving most of its troops out of Chad, the Pentagon said on Thursday, in a move that further reduces the American footprint in Africa.
Pentagon press secretary Maj Gen Patrick Ryder said some of the US troops in Chad would move out of the landlocked Central African nation.
“This is a temporary step as part of an ongoing review of our security co-operation, which will resume after Chad's May 6 presidential election,” Maj Gen Ryder told reporters.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that the US is still talking to Chad about the security partnership and he expects those talks to increase after the election.
The Pentagon this week started talks with Niger on withdrawing the more than 1,000 American troops stationed in the junta-ruled country, which has been a key base for regional counter-terrorism operations.
Niger's government, which removed its president last year, last month said it was ending a military co-operation agreement with Washington.
Niger and Chad have played a vital role in the Pentagon's counter-extremist efforts in the Sahel region and West Africa.
Over the past decade, the US has performed counter-terrorism and global security operations against ISIS and Al Qaeda through two bases in Niger.
About 100 US troops are stationed in Chad. France, the country's former colonial power, still has 1,000 troops and warplanes in the vast country.
US and Nigerien officials met on Thursday in Niger's capital to “begin discussing the orderly withdrawal of US forces", Maj Gen Ryder said.
He said that it was a “safe bet” to assume that the discussions centred on a total withdrawal.
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Building boom turning to bust as Turkey's economy slows
Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage - hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle.
Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.
The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry - a key sector - as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn.
After a long period of solid growth, Turkey's economy contracted 1.1 per cent in the third quarter, and many economists expect it will enter into recession this year.
The country has been hit by high inflation and a currency crisis in August. The lira lost 28 per cent of its value against the dollar in 2018 and markets are still unconvinced by the readiness of the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to tackle underlying economic issues.
The villas close to the town centre of Mudurnu in the Bolu region are intended to resemble European architecture and are part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project.
But the development of 732 villas and a shopping centre - which began in 2014 - is now in limbo as Sarot Group has sought bankruptcy protection.
It is one of hundreds of Turkish companies that have done so as they seek cover from creditors and to restructure their debts.
