ROT, my colleague Macinelli’s cleverly coined acronym for Republicans For Trump, probably didn’t have time to sigh in relief because the imbroglio in Niger slipped into back-page oblivion. Who wants to talk about a war out of view when there are so many battles being fought on the White House lawn? One of them is even over Canadian uranium and who did what to whom while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

While the story percolated, folks learned which Trumpsters were heading for the dumpster. Ironically, nailing those thugs seriously trumped the secret war in Niger, part of a much loftier American effort across Africa to obtain mineral rights and beneficial treaties with the warlords and tribal kings running most of “the Dark Continent.”

Before the Army closed its massive website without comment, the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said it has military missions in 54 African nations. The question they ask is not why Niger, Chad or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but “what do they offer?”

Africa offers a cornucopia of minerals and ore. Western nations, in a cut-throat race to obtain them, reciprocate with wonderful things of their own. Guns are popular, trucks, machinery, vegetable oil, uniforms, water-filtration systems, bigger guns, a model for growing better rice, really big guns, etc. The lackluster AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany is there to get it done for America.

This reporter has discovered that his previously cited 2012 U.S. geological survey assessment of Niger’s contribution of uranium to the world is out of date. Newer sources claim Niger is now the world’s fourth-largest producer of uranium, not fifth. A new mine owned by New AREVA, a French multinational company, is the largest mining project ever undertaken in Niger and the largest open pit uranium mine in Africa. The deposit covers 8 km by 2.5 km, and New AREVA lists 213,700 tons of uranium reserves there.

While uranium prices dropped after nuclear power plants were shuttered in Germany and Japan following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, long-term demand for uranium is expected to rise to supply power plants now being built in China and other countries.

Who could have guessed the U.S. has been helping France as it struggles to keep Niger’s mines safe for energy exploitation. The enemy is local tribal movements, often armed and advised by agents of proxy political movements loosely affiliated with various Islamic theocracies. Their ill-defined and fluid organizations morph repeatedly as political, nationalist and religious factions split, regroup and fight each other for dominance in the empty lands of Timbuktu.

The Niger insurgency army and its companion movements in Chad and Mali are very adept war fighters. France already knows that. The rebels demonstrated so again last month when a mobile U.S. Special Forces team advising Niger and Nigerien troops was surrounded, separated into unsupported elements and severely battered while suffering four dead and two wounded.

It happened in the face of French air power. The so-called ragtag rebels managed to assemble and initiate a concerted attack on mobile American forces using complex tactical doctrine, mortars, RPGs and heavy machine guns. Whatever AFRICOM wishes to label the enemy, the local resistance to the French, and now American presence, camouflages the direct threat posed to French uranium mining interests that the U.S. is now defending. Nothing else is worth protecting.

For starters, consider “Operation Barkhane,” an ongoing French anti-insurgent operation in Africa’s Sahel region of Mali, Chad and Niger. French officials called the three-year venture “the French pillar of counterterrorism . . . ” in northwest Africa. Since August 2014, a 3,000-strong French force has been headquartered in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. The operation targets ruthless Islamist extremists in Mali, Chad and Niger with a mandate to operate across borders. It supersedes two previous operations that failed to quell the insurgents in Mali and Chad. The Chad government recently pulled out of its cooperative quest with France to defeat rebels in Mali. Trillions of dollars in oil, gold, uranium and political influence — especially political influence — are at risk.

Six months before Operation Barkhane launched its offensive, U.S. AFRICOM hosted the opening ceremony of “Flintlock 2014” in Niamey, the capital city of Niger. During the multinational exercise the Niger Army worked on its air resupply capabilities. Who besides France might be delivering military material is uncertain because Niger doesn’t have any airplanes. Since the Feb. 24, 2014, inauguration of American military presence in Niger, the United States has been rotating Army and National Guard units there for “training” and infrastructure improvement, a euphemism for improving airports, key roads and bridges the U.S. might need in the future.

On January 24 2017, the Indiana National Guard and the Republic of Niger “partnered” under the Department of Defense’s State Partnership Program. The Pentagon says this program pairs American states and foreign nations to “enhance mutual relationships and promote defense and security cooperation objectives established by the United States and its partners.”

No mention that Indiana is the home state of Vice President Michael Pence, or that a $100 million Air Force project is underway in Niger that Indiana Republicans can roll out to show Indiana cares for its service members. Pence, like President Trump, says he leaves things like that to Mr. Trump’s generals.

“Hoosier Guardsmen are dedicated to deepening our development and security cooperation relationships with our Nigerien partners,” tooted Maj. Gen. Courtney P. Carr, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard. If Indiana ever gets attacked, Niger will be there for them.

On March 16, 2017, the Niger Army, along with troops from Cameroon and Nigeria, began training with the U.S. 3rd Special Forces group (Airborne), the same unit from which the American soldiers died almost a month ago.

On Oct 2, 2017, AFRICOM announced “Flintlock Exit” in Niger . . . what is projected to be “the biggest military labor troop project in U.S. Air Force history.” Already under way, the Air Force intends to base MQ9 Reapers — so-called hunter/killer drones with advanced intelligence gathering capabilities — in restive Agadez, Niger. It just so happens that the second biggest city in Niger is also in the middle of the volatile mining region threatened on three sides by ISIS-linked insurgents.

Mr. Trump can honestly reveal that President Barak Obama started the ball rolling in Niger by announcing American aid there in 2013. At the time, Obama’s offering was 100 troops preparing the ground for future U.S. intervention, an old gambit traceable to the Contra war. Big countries can’t run clandestine wars without good airports and infrastructure. Its called securing an airhead.

Next came the war fighters in early 2017. Apparently, U.S. generals now running the low-level conflict in Niger don’t need Mr. Trump’s approval to continue the mission which appears to be driving helter-skelter through Niger with guns and ambitions to wipe out the bad guys. Keep in mind the unfortunate Americans were attacked close to the capital, always a bad omen when claiming popular support.

The elusive targets are tribal groups with small arms ostensibly provided by nefarious forces outside Africa with ties to ISIS. Four years ago it was ties to Al-Qaeda. Before that it was communist-inspired or right-wing nationalist groups, etc. Counter-insurgency needs a boogieman to be successful.

Some argue Africans are used to it. Europeans have been exploiting Africa since they found out the natives didn’t have guns. The first serious U.S. involvement in African affairs was in Central and Northwest Africa when the Air Force needed air bases during World War II. Although still French, German and British colonies, the war had eviscerated colonial rule. Eventually all the colonies were returned to national rule and five decades of chaos.

The American policy was buying off the locals until pesky nationalist movements threw a monkey wrench in American fortunes. Neo-colonialism, however, ultimately prevailed, when the locals realized they had no expertise or infrastructure to do anything but sell their natural resources to the highest bidder. Of course nobody practices international trade colonialism anymore; it’s called capitalism now. Hence, the secret war in Niger.

On Sept. 20, Mr. Trump met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The White House said President Trump offered “increased United States assistance in combating terrorism in the Sahel region of Africa,” according to a press release. For those unfamiliar with the Sahel region of Africa, Mr.Trump and Macron were talking about Niger, Chad and Mali. What a coincidence!

American exposure in Niger is limited to two related U.S. subsidiary companies operating under the aegis of New AREVA, the French company that dominates that region of the uranium mining world. AREVA Nuclear Materials and AREVA NP are among the biggest beneficiaries of the Niger mines. AREVA NP has a strong presence in the U.S. nuclear energy market, helping power “36 million American homes while advancing the future of nuclear energy here and abroad,” AREVA NP said.

Neither the U.S. based subsidiaries or New AREVA sells mining, processing and enriching uranium ore capabilities to the world. France is the world’s biggest user of nuclear energy for peaceful power and a power broker on the nuclear energy markets. Canada and Kazakhstan vie for being the biggest uranium producer. In addition to France and the U.S., China, Japan, Canada, and a multitude of lesser states are competing for the available yellowcake discovered in Africa.

Neither New AREVA or its American subsidiaries was willing to discuss the situation. An unnamed person at New AREVA somewhere in France said that “unfortunately we cannot answer your questions.”

Yellowcake, the popular moniker for processed uranium ore that New AREVA produces, is actually milled uranium oxide, known to chemists as U3O8. When uranium ore comes out of a mine, the rocky material contains little “radioactive” uranium. The new Niger mine is .07% pure uranium before being mined. After being processed, essentially being pounded into powder, separated into elements and washed in sulphuric acid, what remains is yellowcake. With a lot more massaging it will produce electricity or H- bombs. That is what enrichment does. The U.S. stake in Niger potentially affects almost one-third of the U.S. population directly, according to AREVA publicity materials.

Although a Pandora’s box in Niger was opened on Obama’s watch, his administration managed to keep its affairs in Africa in the background. No longer. The genie is out of the bottle. More scrutiny will now fall on what Trump’s generals are doing on a continent where Congolese Pygmies are still asking for U.N. protection from being eaten and enslaved.