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In May 2015, Sahrawi spoke on the behalf of al-Mourabitoun and had pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In August 2013, MUJAO merged with al-Mourabitoun, which swore allegiance to al-Qaeda emir Ayman al-Zawahiri. In 2015, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara was established by Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, who was a spokesperson and senior leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), a splinter group of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The expectations were that construction of the base would be completed in 2018, which would allow the US to conduct surveillance operations with the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper to monitor ISIL insurgents flowing south and other extremists flowing north from the Sahel region. In October 2017, there were about 800 US military personnel in Niger, most of whom were working to build a second drone base for US and French aircraft in Agadez. US Army Special Forces personnel (commonly referred to as Green Berets) have deployed on numerous occasions to train personnel of the Niger Armed Forces (FAN) to assist in the fight against terrorists from neighboring countries. In October 2015, Niger and the US signed a military agreement committing the two countries "to work together in the fight against terrorism".

In that month, US President Barack Obama sent 150 military personnel to Niger to set up a surveillance drone operation that would aid France in its counterterrorism efforts in the Northern Mali conflict. On 5 February, officials from both Niger and the United States said that the two countries signed a status of forces agreement that allowed the deployment of unarmed surveillance drones. In January 2013, a senior Nigerien official told Reuters that Bisa Williams, the then- United States Ambassador to Niger, requested permission to establish a drone base in a meeting with Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou. The ambush remains the largest loss of American lives in combat in Africa since the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. The DoD inquiry, completed in 2018, found that the 11-member US special forces team was not prepared for the mission, and identified other flaws in planning.

The ambush also prompted congressional inquiries, and an investigation by the US Department of Defense (DoD). The ambush sparked political debate over the presence of US forces in Africa and brought attention to previously under-reported US military activities in the region. In the day preceding the ambush, the Nigerien and US soldiers conducted a mission attempting to locate and capture or kill Doundou Chefou, a commander in the ISGS. During the ambush, four Nigeriens, four US soldiers, and at least 21 ISGS militants were killed, and eight Nigeriens and two US soldiers including the team commander were wounded. The Tongo Tongo ambush or the Niger ambush occurred on 4 October 2017, when armed militants from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) attacked Nigerien and US soldiers outside the village of Tongo Tongo, Niger, while they were returning to base after a stop in the village. Chimère special operations team, 1st RPIMa ġ0 soldiers, 1 intelligence contractor 2 technicals, 1 unarmed Toyota Land Cruiser ģ ground Quick Reaction Force elements of at least 100 soldiers, 1 helicopterĥ0–100+ militants, ~12 technicals, ~20 motorcycles Ĥ soldiers killed, 1 interpreter killed, 8 wounded.Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 3212.

Green Beret senior Officers and team leaders disciplined for the outcome of the ambush.US congressional inquiry and DoD investigation.