U.S. Troops in Niger to Receive Combat Pay, Pentagon Says

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said on Wednesday that U.S. troops in Niger had been authorized to receive imminent-danger pay the day before the commander who oversees military missions in Africa told House lawmakers that the White House had still not approved that request.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said that the decision to include Niger in the list of combat zones where troops receive extra pay was made on Monday — and had not been communicated to Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser before his testimony the day after.

“I don’t believe the approval was processed quickly enough to make it before Gen. Waldhauser’s hearing,” a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, Maj. Sheryll I. Klinkel, said in an email.

On Tuesday, during two hours of testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Waldhauser said the request for danger pay for forces deployed to Niger was submitted “a while back.” He said the final decision was waiting for approval from the White House Office of Management and Budget.

A lawmaker on the House panel, Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., noted during the hearing that U.S. troops stationed in Algeria, Chad, Egypt and Kenya already received such pay.

The issue of pay was one of the few matters that Waldhauser would discuss when asked about Niger. He declined to answer questions about a monthslong investigation into an Oct. 4 ambush near the Niger-Mali border that killed four American soldiers and five Nigeriens.

Though the investigation is complete, it still requires the approval of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and its results will be shared with the families of the killed soldiers. Waldhauser said that Congress would be briefed on the investigation’s findings once those notifications were complete.

Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright and Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson were killed during an hourslong gunfight near the small village of Tongo Tongo. The body of the fourth soldier, Sgt. La David T. Johnson, was found by villagers two days later.