International news sources over the weekend said that US military planes and the first group of American personnel have landed in northeast Nigeria. Many people see this as a likely increase of collaboration between Nigeria and Washington in the fight against terrorism.
The New York Times says that a U.S. military plane landed in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, on Thursday night. More planes and troops are anticipated to arrive as part of a phased deployment plan.
The publication said that the first group of U.S. troops had landed in Nigeria. By Friday evening, several planes had been seen at the Maiduguri base, where equipment and personnel were said to be being unloaded.
According to U.S. defense sources, the troops are part of a deployment of around 200 intelligence analysts, advisers, and trainers who are there to help Nigeria’s military forces with planning, gathering intelligence, and other non-combat counter-terrorism tasks.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense said that the flights were “the vanguard of what will be a stream of C-17 transport flights into three main locations across Nigeria.” This suggests that more flights may come in the next few weeks.
The report also said that Nigerian defense officials had made it clear that U.S. troops would not be involved in direct combat operations and that Nigerian security forces would be in charge of operations.
While there isn’t much information available about how this will work, security experts say it fits with the existing defense agreements between the two countries. These agreements mostly involve training, sharing intelligence, and providing technical support in the fight against extremist groups in the Lake Chad Basin, including groups linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
At the time of writing, there was no official word from the Presidency or the Nigerian military confirming or rejecting the claimed arrival. This left the exact scope and purpose of the supposed deployment unknown.
People who have watched Nigeria and the U.S. work together on security issues in the past say that these partnerships have mostly been about giving advice and creating capacity, not about fighting together on the front lines. This shows a trend of technical partnership instead of direct military involvement.
If the claimed deployment is officially confirmed, it would show that the international community is once again paying attention to the security situation in the North-East and that Nigeria still has to work with other countries to improve its counter-insurgency structure.
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