The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility it has to evacuate its personnel and equipment from Niger due to the security threat that could upend U.S. operations in the region.

Abdourahamane Tchiani, a presidential guard general, placed Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum under house arrest late last month in what has been the latest in a string of military uprisings in the Sahel region of Africa. The Biden administration has been reluctant to declare the situation an attempted coup, in part because a designation could compel Washington to cut military ties with them, while the Economic Community of West African States is considering the possibility of a military intervention.

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The U.S. hopes for a peaceful resolution that would ultimately allow for it to maintain its bases in Niger, but it is preparing should the conditions on the ground deteriorate further.

"We are planning [for an evacuation] because it's prudent planning to be ready for all situations," Gen. James Hecker, U.S. Air Forces Europe/Africa commander, said on Friday during a Defense Writers Group event. "We're hoping that we don't have to evacuate. That's No. 1 thing, and that's why we're maintaining close ties with the military ties that we've had in the past. We're trying to make sure we reach a diplomatic solution that doesn't turn kinetic at all."

Hecker specified that the decision to withdraw has not been made. Rather, the U.S. is planning for the possibility that such an evacuation, in a permissive or nonpermissive environment, may be necessary.

"That decision is not anywhere close to being made. And I think we have weeks, if not much longer, before our civilian leadership is going to give an order to either stay or — well, to evacuate or not evacuate," he added. "But I think it would be mischaracterizing if you state that we are preparing to go because that acts like you know we're basically going to leave, and we're already decided where we have not."

The U.S. has air bases in Niamey, the capital, and in the remote city of Agadez, on the southern edge of the Sahara. Nigerien Air Base 201, which cost $110 million to build and is near the city of Agadez, is where the military launches counterterrorism drones against terror groups in the region. The U.S. has been unable to fly since the apparent coup because the military closed Nigerien airspace, according to Politico.

Should the U.S. have to evacuate, Hecker admitted, "It obviously will have an effect on our [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] and our ability to continue to do [counterterrorism] in that region."

"We're certainly a planning organization, so while we plan for different scenarios and different outcomes, I'm not going to preview those right now from here. What we are hopeful of, and we continue to push for, is the diplomatic resolution for this to end," deputy Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said on Tuesday. "In terms of how we conduct our counterterrorism operations, I mean, we still maintain over-the-horizon capabilities, not just from Niger but just from other places around the world. And so we will still be able to have capabilities within the region, but Niger is a partner, and we don't want to see that partnership go. We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars into bases there, trained with the military there."

A high-ranking member of Bazoum's party, Boubacar Sabo, said on Thursday that if the military can successfully take the country, it "is the end of democracy in Africa," according to the Associated Press.

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The Nigerien military's uprising comes as the latest in a series of them across the Sahel, including in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso and another in nearby Guinea. The leader of Sudan, in the eastern part of the Sahel, was also overthrown in 2021. Many of these uprisings occurred at a time when there was a strong anti-Western and specifically an anti-French attitude because France colonized much of West Africa, according to Liam Karr, an analyst for the American Enterprise Institute.

With the push away from the Western world, Russia is "right there, ready and waiting," he told the Washington Examiner, noting that both U.S. influence in the Sahel and its ability to conduct counterterrorism operations in the region are "very much at stake in West Africa."