The general in charge of the U.S. command for Africa announced Wednesday that the U.S. has sent a small group of troops to Nigeria.
Vanguard says this is the first time U.S. personnel on the ground have been acknowledged since Washington was hit by air on Christmas Day.
In December, President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on what he said were Islamic State targets in Nigeria. He also said that the U.S. military might do more there.
Earlier, Reuters said that the U.S. had been flying surveillance planes over the country from Ghana since at least late November.
The top general said that both countries agreed that more needed to be done to fight the terrorist threat in West Africa, which is why the U.S. team was sent.
General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, director of the U.S. military’s Africa Command AFRICOM, told reporters at a briefing yesterday that “that has led to more cooperation between our countries, including a small U.S. team that brings some unique skills from the United States.”
Anderson did not say anything else about how big or important their task was.
General Christopher Musa, the Minister of Defense, stated that a team was working in Nigeria but didn’t give any further information.
A former U.S. official noted that the U.S. team seemed to be quite involved in gathering intelligence and helping Nigerian authorities attack groups linked to terrorists.
Washington has put a lot of pressure on Nigeria to act after President Trump said that the country wasn’t doing enough to safeguard Christians from Islamist extremists in the northwest.
The Nigerian government says it is not systematically persecuting Christians. Instead, it is going after Islamist fighters and other armed groups that attack both Christian and Muslim populations.
Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) members have stepped up their attacks on military convoys and civilians. The northwest is still the center of the 17-year Islamist insurgency.
The U.S. military’s Africa command reported that the strike in Sokoto State was planned with Nigerian officials and killed several ISIS fighters.
In late October, Trump started to warn that Christianity was facing a “existential threat” in Nigeria and promised to send troops to quell the violence on Christian communities.
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