The U.S. will have fully cleared out of one air base in Niger as it continues to move personnel and equipment from the African country ahead of a September deadline to complete its withdrawal, according to the head of U.S. Africa Command.

Niger and the U.S. announced their decision in a joint statement last month and set a deadline of Sept. 15 for the U.S. to move its forces out of the West African country. Ties between the two nations began to deteriorate last summer after a coup staged by a military junta known as the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, or CNSP.

By March, a spokesman for the council said U.S. forces would no longer operate in the country.

“We are on pace and on plan, moving heavy equipment out of Air Base 101, and then we will conclude with Air Base 201,” U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley told reporters in a June 24 press briefing.

“Within a few weeks, we’ll be done with 101. I’ll put it that way,” he added. “Heavy equipment, rolling stock, is always the biggest thing that we are getting out of there. … We’re right on pace if not ahead of the pace.”

America has relied on Niger as a counterterrorism hub for more than a decade. Until recently, more than 1,000 U.S. personnel have operated there, with most concentrated on an air base located in the center of the country, which cost more than $100 million.

The plan for relocating equipment is not yet finalized, but Langley said he has made tours across coastal West Africa and the rest of the region to best understand what those countries need for addressing the counterterrorism fight they face.

WASHINGTON — From his home office in small-town Kentucky, a seasoned political operative is quietly investigating scores of federal employees suspected of being hostile to the policies of Republican Donald Trump, an effort that dovetails with broader conservative preparations for a new White House.

Tom Jones and his American Accountability Foundation are digging into the backgrounds, social media posts and commentary of key high-ranking government employees, starting with the Department of Homeland Security. They're relying in part on tips from his network of conservative contacts, including workers. In a move that alarms some, they're preparing to publish the findings online.

With a $100,000 grant from the influential Heritage Foundation, the goal is to post 100 names of government workers to a website this summer to show a potential new administration who might be standing in the way of a second-term Trump agenda — and ripe for scrutiny, reclassifications, reassignments or firings.

“We need to understand who these people are and what they do,” said Jones, a former Capitol Hill aide to Republican senators.

The concept of compiling and publicizing a list of government employees shows the lengths Trump’s allies are willing to go to ensure nothing or no one will block his plans in a potential second term. Jones' Project Sovereignty 2025 comes as Heritage's Project 2025 lays the groundwork, with policies, proposals and personnel ready for a possible new White House.

More than a month after a news report revealed that the Combat Infantryman Badge Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, wears on his lapel was revoked since he was never eligible for the award to begin with, the congressman refuses to take the pin off.

Nehls' stubbornness has garnered growing criticism from veterans and others in the community of stolen valor researchers, who say the issue is simple: The rules for the CIB are clear, and Nehls did not qualify.

"The veteran community is starting to get to the point now where there's no room for forgiveness at this point because now they see, ‘Hey, this wasn't an error. He's doubling down now,’" said Anthony Anderson, an Army veteran who runs Guardian of Valor and was instrumental in uncovering Nehls' revoked award. "He knows he didn't earn this award."

CBS News and Anderson's Guardian of Valor first revealed in May that the Army revoked Nehls' CIB in March 2023 because at the time he was awarded it in 2008 he served as a civil affairs officer, not an infantryman or Special Forces soldier.