The United States is preparing to send troops to Nigeria where they will train the country’s armed forces as they battle an Islamist insurgency, authorities in Lagos said recently.
Roughly 200 troops are expected to be deployed in the coming weeks, according to a U.S. official. They will supplement a small team of American military officers already embedded with Nigerian forces. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the imminent deployment.
Nigerian officials insisted that the new American contingent will not be engaging in combat.
Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Defense Headquarters, said in a statement that the troops will instead serve as “technical and training personnel.”
The deployment comes more than a month after President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces had bombed what he termed “ISIS Terrorist Scum” in Nigeria on Christmas night.
U.S. Africa Command said its preliminary assessment indicated that “multiple ISIS terrorists” in the Sokoto State were killed in the strikes.
The timing of the operation, the president later acknowledged, was largely symbolic, noting he had delayed the attack to deliver a “Christmas present” to the insurgents.
In the run-up to the operation, Trump let fly a fusillade of Truth Social posts demanding the protection of Christians in Nigeria – who he claims are being “mass slaughtered” – or else the U.S. military would go “guns-a-blazing” into Africa’s most populous country.
“When Christians come under attack, [their assailants] know they’re going to be attacked violently and viciously by President Trump,” Trump declared during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill last week. “I know it’s not a nice thing to say, but that’s the way it is.”
The Nigerian government, meanwhile, has rejected the claim of a Christian genocide, saying terrorist groups, including Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa, have made no distinction between Christians and Muslims in the country.
Extremists have killed thousands at churches, mosques and villages alike. Beyond sectarian tensions, the violence also stems from longstanding disputes over land and water resources.
Gen. Dagvin Anderson, commander of AFRICOM, said the U.S. was committed to partnered collaboration to combat the terrorist threat in the area.
“U.S. Africa Command is working with Nigerian and regional partners to increase counterterrorism cooperation efforts related to on-going violence and threats against innocent lives,” he said in a statement after the Christmas night attack.
“Our goal is to protect Americans and disrupt violent extremist organizations wherever they are.”
Tanya Noury is a reporter for Military Times and Defense News, with coverage focusing on the White House and Pentagon.
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