The United States has sent a “small team” of military personnel to Nigeria in the wake of renewed joint security collaboration between both nations.
The development was disclosed on Tuesday by Dagvin Anderson, the commander of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), during a press briefing.
This marks the first public confirmation of American troops operating in Nigeria since missile strikes ordered during the Donald Trump presidency targeted terrorist camps in Sokoto on Christmas Day.
Anderson explained that the deployment followed discussions with President Bola Tinubu in Rome late last year.
“That has led to increased collaboration between our nations, to include a small U.S. team that brings some unique capabilities from the United States in order to augment what Nigeria has been doing for several years,” Anderson said.
He, however, did not reveal specific details about the team or disclose when it arrived in the country.
Weeks earlier, Allison Hooker, the US under-secretary of state, led a delegation comprising eight federal agencies to Abuja for a bilateral working group session with Nigerian security authorities.
The Nigerian delegation was led by Nuhu Ribadu, the national security adviser (NSA).
The engagement followed Nigeria’s redesignation as a ‘country of particular concern’ (CPC) by Trump.
At the time, Trump had threatened to deploy troops into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing to wipe out the terrorists killing our Christians”.
On December 25, the United States carried out airstrikes on two terrorist hideouts in the Bauni forest area of Tangaza LGA, Sokoto state.
TheCable has reached out to the Nigerian ministry of defence for its reaction.