The United States has dispatched troops to Nigeria following recent joint security cooperation between both countries.
Dagvin Anderson, the general in charge of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), disclosed the development during a press briefing on Tuesday.
This marks the first public acknowledgement of US boots on the ground in Nigeria since the Donald Trump administration launched missile strikes targeting terrorists in Sokoto on Christmas Day.
Anderson said the deployment followed a meeting he held with President Bola Tinubu in Rome late last year.
“That has led to increased collaboration between our nations, to include a small US team that brings some unique capabilities from the United States to augment what Nigeria has been doing for several years,” Anderson said.
He did not provide further details, and it remains unclear when the team arrived in Nigeria.
Weeks earlier, Allison Hooker, the US under-secretary of state, led a delegation comprising officials from eight federal agencies to Abuja for a bilateral working group meeting with Nigerian security officials.
Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria’s national security adviser (NSA), headed the Nigerian delegation.
The meeting followed the redesignation of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) by the Trump administration.
Trump had previously threatened to send troops into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing to wipe out the terrorists killing our Christians”.
On December 25, the United States carried out air strikes on two terrorist enclaves in Bauni forest, Tangaza LGA of Sokoto state.
