France's decision to pull 1,500 troops from Niger leaves a gaping hole in Western efforts to counter a decadelong Islamist insurgency and could bolster Russian influence across the vast, insecure scrublands of West Africa, analysts and diplomats said.
Niger was the West's last key ally in the central Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert until a July 26 coup brought in a military junta which called for France to leave.
France's forces have already been kicked out of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso following coups in those countries, weakening its influence in its former colonies amid a wave of anti-French sentiment.