United States says it’s military has sent a small team of troops to Nigeria to help fight insecurity.
The general in-charge of the US command for Africa said on Tuesday, the first acknowledgment of American forces on the ground since Washington struck by air on Christmas Day.
President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on what he described as Islamic state targets in Nigeria in December and said there could be more US military action there.
The general said the US team was sent after both countries agreed that more needed to be done to combat the terrorist threat in West Africa.
“That has led to increased collaboration between our nations to include a small US team that brings some unique capabilities from the United States,” General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, head of the US military’s Africa Command AFRICOM told journaGeneral Dagvin R.M. Anderson, head of the US military’s Africa Command£££££9( not provide further details about the size and scope of their mission, but he said the move followed his meeting with Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, in Rome late last year.
Nigeria‘s Defense Minister Christopher Musa confirmed that a team was working in the country but did not provide further details.
A former US official also said the US team appeared to be heavily involved in intelligence gathering and enabling Nigerian forces to strike terrorist-affiliated groups.
It is not completely clear when the team exactly arrived in Nigeria.
Recall that Nigeria came under intense pressure by Washington to act after President Trump accused the country of failing to protect Christians from Islamist militants operating in the northwest.
The Nigerian government denied any systematic persecution of Christians, saying it is targeting Islamist fighters and other armed groups that attack both Christian and Muslim civilians.
For years Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters had intensified attacks on military convoys and civilians, and the northwest remains the epicentre of the 17-year Islamist insurgency.
The US military’s Africa Command said the strike was carried out in Sokoto state in coordination with Nigerian authorities and killed multiple ISIS militants.
The strike came after Trump in late October began warning that Christianity faces an “existential threat” in Nigeria and threatened to militarily intervene in the West African country over what he says is its failure to stop violence targeting Christian communitie
