Turkey Trains Mali and Niger Soldiers in Sahel Pivot

Soldiers from Mali and Niger completed training at Turkey's special forces camp in Isparta in early June, the latest cohort in a military cooperation programme that Ankara has extended to more than 20 African nations. The programme follows what Turkish officials and defence analysts call the 'Somalia model' — a reference to Turkey's largest overseas military base in Mogadishu, which has served as the template for building long-term military relationships without deploying Turkish combat troops directly.

Huseyin Bagci, professor of international relations at Ankara's Middle East Technical University, described the logic: 'Turkey has done it to Central Asian countries in the 90s, in the 2000s. So now the African is on the line.' Defence analyst Nebahat Tanriverdi Yasar, of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said Turkey's footprint extends well beyond Somalia and Libya: 'We are seeing growing ties with Sahelian countries, especially Niger, Mali, Nigeria.' Tanriverdi Yasar characterised the strategy as 'a relatively low-cost way to present itself in sensitive theaters, with fewer operational costs and risk of direct intervention.'

The Mali and Niger graduations are part of a wider strategic opportunity Ankara has moved to seize since France's military withdrawal from West Africa, where French forces have lost basing rights following coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger since 2021. African partner governments increasingly present Turkey as a counterweight to Russian influence — exercised primarily through Wagner Group successor entities — and to China's expanding economic and infrastructure presence. Turkey also continues to court Libya's rival factions as part of a broader Mediterranean policy that connects its African engagement to its interests in the Eastern Mediterranean's energy fields.

Domestically, Ankara is preparing to host the NATO summit, at which an alliance-wide €70 billion military aid package for Ukraine is under discussion. Turkey's NATO role places it at the centre of the alliance's ongoing debate over support for Kyiv — a position complicated by Ankara's simultaneous maintenance of economic ties with Moscow. An SPD delegation from Germany visited ousted CHP leader Özel in Ankara, reflecting European concern about the treatment of Turkish opposition figures, a question that sits unresolved alongside Turkey's NATO ambitions.