A top US general said Tuesday that the United States has deployed a small military force to Nigeria, where President Donald Trump’s administration has alternately pressured and aided the government to fight jihadist violence.
Africom told AFP last month that the US military would increase equipment supplies and intelligence sharing with Nigeria as part of efforts to fight Islamic State group jihadists. (AP file photo)Speaking after US airstrikes targeting militants in Nigeria on December 25, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) chief General Dagwin Anderson said the two countries had decided to “increase cooperation”.
“We agreed that we need to work together on the way forward in this region,” Anderson said in a virtual news conference.
“It has increased cooperation between our countries to include a small US team that brings some unique capabilities from the US to augment what Nigeria has been doing for several years.”
General did not give details about the activities of the party.
Trump has alleged that there is a “genocide” of Christians in Nigeria, a claim rejected by the Nigerian government and many independent experts, who say the country’s security crisis often claims the lives of both Christians and Muslims without distinction.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is broadly divided between the Christian-majority south and the Muslim-majority north.
Africom told AFP last month that the US military would increase equipment supplies and intelligence sharing with Nigeria as part of efforts to fight Islamic State group jihadists.
US strikes in December hit IS targets in Sokoto state in northwestern Nigeria.
Africom said US military support would be concentrated in that region and in the northeast, home to the Islamist group Boko Haram responsible for nearly two decades of unrest and a splinter movement, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).