DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The International Committee of the Red Cross announced the closure of its offices in Niger and the departure of its foreign staff, four months after the ruling junta ordered the organization to leave the country.
The ICRC confirmed the closure and departure in a statement on Thursday.
“We reiterate our willingness to maintain constructive dialogue with the authorities of Niger with a view to resuming our strictly humanitarian protection and assistance activities," Patrick Youssef, the ICRC’s regional director for Africa, said in the statement.
In February, Niger’s Foreign Affairs Ministry had ordered the ICRC to close its offices and leave the country. No official reason was given for the military junta’s decision to shut down the organization's operations in the country at the time.
The ICRC said it had been in dialogue with Niger's authorities since February to understand the reasons for their decision and provide any necessary clarification but that these efforts were unsuccessful.
On May 31, Niger’s junta leader, Abdourahamane Tchiani, justified the ICRC expulsion on Nigerien state television, accusing the organization of having met with “terrorist leaders” and funding armed groups.
The ICRC refuted the accusations in its statement on Thursday, saying that dialogue with all sides in the conflict is necessary to carry out its humanitarian mandate and that it “never provides financial, logistical, or any other form of support" to armed groups.
The humanitarian organization had been active in the West African country since 1990, mainly helping people displaced by violence by Islamic extremists, food insecurity and natural disasters. According to the organization, it provided humanitarian aid to more than 2 million people in Niger.
Niger’s military rulers took power in a coup two years ago, the latest of several military takeovers in Africa’s Sahel, the vast, arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert that has become a hotspot for extremist violence by militant groups.
Since the coup, Niger has pulled away from its Western partners, such as France and the United States, turning instead to Russia for security.
Last November, the country's military junta banned the French aid group Acted from working in the country amid tensions with France.
FILE - Medical staff with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and South Sudan Red Cross, move a wounded patient to an ambulance in Akobo, South Sudan, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Joseph Falzetta, file)
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been 12 months since President Donald Trump announced a crime emergency in Washington, pledging to make the city “safe and beautiful” and deploying the National Guard.
But a mission that seemed temporary has been extended through January 2029. Residents and a new cadre of local officials see in it an unacceptable attempt by the federal government to restrict the heavily Democratic city's autonomy and, a year in, still question why having troops on the streets of the nation's capital is necessary.
“There’s a deep irony that here we are in the capital of the free world, and our president is treating it like a police state,” said Scott Michelman, legal director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia. “D.C. residents have lived with our National Guard troops in our neighborhoods for about a year, despite the absence of any genuine emergency and really any reason for them to be here.”
The continued deployment will be a major test for a new batch of political candidates expected to take office after the midterms this fall. Residents will look to them to push back on the Republican president's encroachment into the city's affairs — although they're limited in what they can do to counter it.
On Aug. 11, 2025, Trump announced he was launching a federal law enforcement surge in Washington aimed at fighting crime. As of Aug. 4, more than 4,600 military personnel from D.C. and 24 states and territories were still deployed alongside unknown numbers of less visible federal law enforcement officers. Some are expected to be withdrawn toward the end of the summer.
Small groups of armed guard members have become a routine presence on the streets. They have supported arrest operations but are also seen patrolling tourist areas, such as along the Tidal Basin during the Cherry Blossom Festival and in neighborhoods such as Georgetown where violent crimes are rare. They've helped with medical emergencies, snow removal and beautification projects — initiatives that have received support from some residents.
Extending the deployment into 2029 will cost about $1.4 billion, the Defense Department estimates. Exact figures on what's been spent so far are unavailable, but the Congressional Budget Office projected in a report earlier this year the total cost for the first year of the deployment would be around $660 million, based on a monthly troop level of about 2,900, a figure that's fluctuated throughout the mission.
“President Trump has transformed D.C. from a crime-ridden city into a safe and beautiful haven for residents and visitors alike,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an email.
Figures released Monday by the U.S. Marshals Service showed over 16,000 arrests have been made since the surge began, including 35 homicide suspects and 3,200 narcotics arrests. Authorities also have seized nearly 2,000 illegal firearms.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that the arrests and weapons seizures "mean safer neighborhoods and lives protected."
Crime, which was falling before the surge began, continues to drop. Metropolitan Police Department statistics show overall crime was down 20% through Friday, compared with the same period in 2025. That includes a 32% drop in homicides, from 97 to 66.
But there’s a debate over how much of that success is owed to Trump’s mission or to yearslong local efforts to chip away at the crime rate.
What's certain is locals feel the weight of the deployment and don't see a clear way to push back against it. National Guard deployments to other cities have been blocked by courts, and a lawsuit challenging the deployment is pending, but critics of the surge aren't hopeful.
“The fact that we still have the National Guard walking our streets a year later with no end in sight is really demoralizing,” city council member Brianne K. Nadeau said.
Because Washington is a congressionally established federal district, Trump has much greater influence over the police and D.C. National Guard, which he controls directly, including its commander.
The Home Rule Act, passed in 1973, allows residents to vote for local leaders, including the mayor and council members. Congress has oversight over the local budget and review authority of all laws passed and the ability to summon district officials to the Capitol routinely to explain themselves. The D.C. delegate to Congress is a nonvoting position.
The city’s governmental structure under home rule made it easy for Trump to do what he has done, Nadeau said.
“There isn’t really any political liability for national leaders to mess with D.C. because nobody really cares,” outside of those directly impacted, she said.
The law enforcement surge played a major role in Democratic primary elections in June, which elevated candidates who have made Washington's autonomy and statehood top priorities.
Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist who in the overwhelmingly Democratic city is likely to be its next mayor, has already rankled Trump. He threatened to put the city under federal control if she wins.
Robert White Jr., another pro-statehood candidate, won the Democratic primary for the city's seat in Congress.
And while they are hamstrung by the city's status, both hope they have strategies that can help fight back against the president and the deployment.
White told The Associated Press he plans to build “an army of residents” and allies to target swing districts and work at “un-electing" people critical of the district and “electing those who do support D.C.”
The action is similar to one a former D.C. congressional delegate, Walter Fauntroy, successfully pursued in 1972, mobilizing Black voters and allies against a South Carolina Congress member who had long opposed D.C.'s independence.
“He didn't deploy that strategy a bunch of times, but it sent a signal to people to lay off of D.C.,” White said.
The city's outgoing mayor, Muriel Bowser, avoided the kind of biting rhetoric and personal attacks typical of other high-profile Democratic leaders, despite the unprecedented intervention into her city. A major part of that was to avoid raising Trump’s ire and threaten what independence the city has.
In a statement Monday, Bowser called the surge an “unprecedented federal intervention" that highlighted D.C.'s lack of "statehood and autonomy.”
She credited her actions during the surge, including working with the federal government, with protecting home rule and keeping the federal emergency that gave control of the local police to the president from being extended.
“Still, unmitigated ICE activity in American cities and out-of-state National Guard troops in D.C. remain problematic," she said. "Like all Americans, Washingtonians deserve local control and accountability. My North Star remains clear: protect Home Rule, protect D.C.’s autonomy, and protect D.C. residents.”
Donna Powell, who is living part time in the city, said she and her husband walk and metro everywhere. “We’re already safe and beautiful,” she said. “We don’t need all these National Guard here.”
The money could be better spent “on healthcare and food for families that need it.”
The National Guard deployment has raised concerns among some over what the upcoming midterms and the 2028 presidential election will look like with troops on the streets.
“The last time this president was supposed to come out of power, Jan. 6 happened," said Alex Dodds, co-founder of FreeDC, an activist group that has protested the deployment by following and filming National Guard troops in quiet areas of the city far away from crime concerns. "Imagine if that happens again but this time he has 5,000 troops standing at the ready to be part of that situation. You know, that’s our worry.”
FILE - Members of the Florida National Guard pass by people on a sidewalk, April 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Demonstrators protest against President Donald Trump's deployment of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops during a march, Sept. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - A member of the Mississippi National Guard walks among the cherry blossom trees along the tidal basin on the National Mall on Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner, File)
FILE - A demonstrator holds a sign reading "Justice for Renee & Alex" during a protest outside a SpringHill Suites and Residence Inn by Marriott hotels, Jan. 26, 2026, in Maple Grove, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, File)
FILE - National Guard members gather near a large portrait of President Donald Trump on the Labor Department headquarters before the body of Metropolitan Police Department officer Terry Bennett is driven past the Capitol, Jan. 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - The Vermont state Capitol building is seen, May 8, 2025, in Montpelier, Vt. (AP Photo/Alex Driehaus, File)
FILE - Armed National Guard soldiers from West Virginia patrol the Mall near the Capitol in Washington, as part of President Donald Trump's order to impose federal law enforcement in the nation's capital, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
