Thursday Briefing – The New York Times

The costs of the coup in Niger

The military takeover in Niger has upended years of Western counterterrorism efforts in West Africa. The coup also poses challenges for the Biden administration’s fight against Islamist militants on the continent, especially in the Sahel, the semiarid region south of the Sahara where groups linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State are quickly gaining ground.

Niger, an impoverished nation of 25 million people that is nearly twice the size of Texas, has recently been…