--- title: Sgt. La David Johnson: What We Know About Niger Mission description: What was the slain soldier, Sgt. La David Johnson, doing that led to his death in the Western African country of Niger? canonical: https://time.com/4991205/la-david-johnson-trump-john-kelly-niger/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-20T20:01:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:58:02.808Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Is Feuding With a Congresswoman Over a Soldier Killed in Niger. Why Was He Deployed There? og:description: Here's why U.S. troops are in Africa og:url: https://time.com/4991205/la-david-johnson-trump-john-kelly-niger/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt359890e298477efb/6988e268bc6cfc74933e393f/la-david-johnson-gofundme.jpg?branch=production&width=306&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 306 og:image:height: 172 og:image:alt: la-david-johnson-gofundme og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Is Feuding With a Congresswoman Over a Soldier Killed in Niger. Why Was He Deployed There? twitter:description: Here's why U.S. troops are in Africa twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt359890e298477efb/6988e268bc6cfc74933e393f/la-david-johnson-gofundme.jpg?branch=production&width=306&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Is Feuding With a Congresswoman Over a Soldier Killed in Niger. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=205af921-877a-4391-9a18-2ad9215255b3&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Chief of Staff John Kelly Defends President Trump's Call to Widow and Denounces Congresswoman [Watch (HLS stream): Chief of Staff John Kelly Defends President Trump's Call to Widow and Denounces Congresswoman](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BrTzIfdP.m3u8) (1:34)  _Published 2017-10-19. White House chief of staff John Kelly delivered an extraordinary denunciation of a Democratic congresswoman Thursday, accusing her of politicizing what he called a "sacred" presidential effort to console the grieving loved ones of a slain soldier._ by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Oct 20, 2017 8:01 PM UTC White House chief of staff John Kelly delivered an extraordinary denunciation of a Democratic congresswoman Thursday, accusing her of politicizing what he called a "sacred" presidential effort to console the grieving loved ones of a slain soldier. by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Oct 20, 2017 8:01 PM UTC As the Trump administration [continues to spar](http://time.com/4990221/john-kelly-trump-frederica-wilson/?xid=homepage) with a Democratic lawmaker over the President’s efforts to console a grieving military widow, some people are wondering: What was the slain soldier, Sgt. La David Johnson, doing that led to his death in the Western African country of Niger? The specifics of the U.S. mission in Niger, and in Africa more broadly, have been largely overshadowed by the feud between President Trump, his Chief of Staff John Kelly, and Democratic congresswoman Frederica Wilson. Here’s what to know. ## **What happened to Sgt. La David Johnson?** Many of the details concerning the event [remain unclear](http://time.com/4990621/pentagon-niger-attack/) as the Pentagon continues to investigate the incident. But the Washington _Post_ [reports](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/10/20/everything-we-know-about-the-niger-attack-that-left-4-u-s-soldiers-dead/?utm%5Fterm=.74ffcac4b70c) that, on Oct. 4, a group of eight to 12 U.S. soldiers were ambushed by around 50 Islamist militants while accompanying 30 to 40 Nigerien troops near the village of Tongo Tongo, just south of Niger’s border with Mali. A thirty-minute firefight [ensued,](http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politics/us-niger-investigation-what-we-know/index.html) during which four Americans were killed. They included Staff Sgts. Dustin Wright, Bryan Black and Jeremiah Johnson, and Sgt. La David Johnson. [Johnson’s remains](http://time.com/4987321/sgt-la-david-t-johnson-remains/) were returned to the U.S. earlier this week. The incident went relatively unnoticed until earlier this week, when Rep. Wilson [told a local Florida TV station](http://time.com/4987321/sgt-la-david-t-johnson-remains/) that, when trying to console Sgt. Johnson’s widow, President Trump told her over the phone that Johnson “knew what he signed up for.” Wilson, who said she overheard Trump’s call on a car speakerphone, has been at the [center of a political firestorm](http://time.com/4990221/john-kelly-trump-frederica-wilson/) over the conversation ever since. ## **Why are U.S. troops in Niger, and where is Niger?** When we think of the U.S. counterterrorism effort overseas, we tend to think of the Middle East. But there has long been a pocket of radical Islam in sub-Saharan Africa — particularly in the countries of Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Chad, and Mauritania — and that pocket continues to grow. The terror inflicted upon northeastern Nigeria by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, for instance, has been [well-documented](http://time.com/boko-harams-other-victims/). As _The Atlantic_ [reports](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/us-niger-green-berets/542190/), U.S. troops have been in sub-Saharan Africa to combat terrorism for about 15 years. The region was considered a crucial chokepoint in the George W. Bush administration’s so-called “war on terror.” U.S. troops arrived in Niger, an impoverished, largely Islamic country north of Nigeria and south of Algeria, [in 2013](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-troops-niger/story?id=50559788) to assist the French military’s war on al-Qaeda there. There are currently about 800 U.S. troops in Niger, according to [ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-troops-niger/story?id=50559788). The U.S. has [spent](https://theintercept.com/2016/09/29/u-s-military-is-building-a-100-million-drone-base-in-africa/) about $100 million to build a drone base in the country. ## **Who was behind the attack on U.S. soldiers in Niger?** According to the Washington _Post,_ the Defense Intelligence Agency has linked the attack to the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. That’s a confederation of jihadists who pledged their allegiance to the greater Islamic State movement, or ISIS, in 2015\. Terror experts [report](https://ctc.usma.edu/posts/sub-saharan-africas-three-new-islamic-state-affiliates) that the group earned credibility in the jihadist realm after a string of attacks in sub-Saharan Africa in the fall of 2015. However, no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, the Associated Press [reports](http://time.com/4990621/pentagon-niger-attack/). ## **What comes next?** The deaths of American servicemen in Niger have raised new questions about the U.S.’s role in sub-Saharan Africa. When Sen. John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was [asked](http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politics/us-niger-investigation-what-we-know/index.html) by a reporter on Wednesday if President Trump was being forthright about what happened on Oct. 4, his answer was simply “no.” According to [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politics/us-niger-investigation-what-we-know/index.html), there have been calls for an investigation into the incident similar to the inquiry into the 2012 assault on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya that left four Americans dead and became a major talking point in the 2016 presidential election. Regardless of the political fallout, the U.S. military presence in sub-Saharan Africa is likely to continue. In a letter to Congress in June, Trump wrote that U.S. forces in the Lake Chad Basin “continue to provide a wide variety of support to African partners conducting counterterrorism operations in the region” and will do so “until their support is no longer needed.” ## Transcript [00:00] If you elect a call of family like this it is about the most [00:03] difficult thing you could imagine. There's no perfect [00:06] way to make that phone call. When [00:10] I took this job, and talked to President Trump [00:16] about how to do it, my first recommendation was, he [00:20] not do it. [00:23] because it's not the phone call that parents, family [00:27] members are looking forward to. He asked me about [00:30] previous presidents and I said I can tell you that [00:33] President Obama was my commander in chief when I [00:37] was on active duty did not call my family. That was not [00:40] a criticism That was just to simply say I don't believe [00:44] President Obama called. That's not a negative thing. So [00:48] he called four people the other day and expressed his [00:51] condolences in the best way that he could. I was [00:54] stunned when I came to work yesterday morning, and [00:59] broken hearted. At what I saw or remembered [01:02] Congress doing. Remember Congress who listened [01:07] in on a phone call from the President of the United [01:09] States to a young wife. And in his way, [01:13] tried to express that opinion, that he's a brave [01:17] man A fallen hero, he knew what he was getting [01:21] himself into, because he enlisted. There's no reason to [01:23] enlist, he enlisted. And he was where he wanted to be, [01:29] exactly where he wanted to be, with exactly the people [01:31] he wanted to be with when his life was taken. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4991205/la-david-johnson-trump-john-kelly-niger/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4991205/la-david-johnson-trump-john-kelly-niger/"},"headline":"Trump Is Feuding With a Congresswoman Over a Soldier Killed in Niger. 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