The United States has deployed a small military team to Nigeria to support the fight against Boko Haram, ISWAP and armed bandit groups in the north.
General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, head of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), confirmed the deployment during a briefing in Dakar. He said the move followed an agreement between both countries that more joint efforts were needed to tackle terrorism in West Africa.
According to him, the team brings what he described as “unique capabilities” from the United States to strengthen ongoing counter-terrorism operations in Nigeria. He did not disclose the number of personnel sent or give details of their specific mission.
Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, retired General Christopher Musa, also confirmed that a US team is currently working in the country but declined to provide further information.
A former US official said the deployed team is heavily focused on gathering intelligence and helping Nigerian forces to identify and strike groups linked to the Islamic State and other terrorist organisations.
The deployment comes after President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes in December on what he described as Islamic State targets in Nigeria, warning that more US military action could follow. US surveillance flights over Nigeria have also been operating from Ghana since at least late November.
Washington has been pressing Nigeria to do more to protect Christians and other civilians from Islamist militants and bandits operating mainly in the northwest. The Nigerian government rejects claims of systematic persecution of Christians and insists its operations target all armed groups that attack both Christian and Muslim communities.
In recent months, Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province fighters have stepped up attacks on military convoys and civilians, keeping the northwest as the centre of a 17-year-long Islamist insurgency.
US Africa Command said an earlier airstrike carried out in Sokoto State, in coordination with Nigerian authorities, killed several ISIS militants. That strike followed warnings from President Trump in late October that Christianity faced what he called an “existential threat” in Nigeria and his threat to intervene militarily if violence against Christian communities continued.
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