The United States has confirmed the deployment of a small team of military personnel to Nigeria, marking the first official acknowledgment that U.S. forces are now on the ground in the West African nation amid rising insecurity.
General Dagvin R.M. Anderson said the move followed his meeting with Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, in Rome late last year.
The top general said the US team was sent after both countries agreed that more needed to be done to combat the terrorist threat in West Africa.
“That has led to increased collaboration between our nations, to include a small U.S. team that brings some unique capabilities from the United States in order to augment what Nigeria has been doing for several years,” General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, head of the US military’s Africa Command AFRICOM, told journalists during a press briefing on Tuesday.
It is unclear when the team arrived in Nigeria, but they are expected to bring specialized capabilities in intelligence and planning to support Nigerian forces’ efforts against extremist groups.
The deployment of military officers marks the latest development following the U.S. airstrikes carried out on December 25 last year against an Islamic State-affiliated group.