The United States has deployed a small contingent of military personnel to Nigeria to bolster the fight against Islamist militants, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said on Tuesday, marking the first formal acknowledgement of U.S. forces on the ground since Washington carried out airstrikes in the country in late December.
General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, head of AFRICOM, said the deployment followed discussions between U.S. and Nigerian leaders — including a meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Rome late last year — during which both sides concluded “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,” Anderson said at a briefing. He did not provide details on the team’s size, exact mission, or activities.
AFRICOM and other U.S. officials have described the unit as a “unique capabilities” team intended to complement Nigerian operations. A former U.S. official told reporters the team appears heavily involved in intelligence collection and in enabling Nigerian forces to strike groups affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) and Boko Haram.
The deployment comes after U.S. strikes on 25 December that AFRICOM said targeted IS-affiliated militants in Sokoto State in northwestern Nigeria and killed multiple fighters. U.S. officials have also been conducting surveillance flights over Nigeria from neighboring Ghana since at least late November. AFRICOM has said it will increase equipment deliveries and intelligence-sharing with Nigeria and that U.S. military support will be concentrated in the northwest and in the northeast regions, long affected by insurgency and violence blamed largely on Boko Haram and its splinter Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Nigeria’s defence leadership confirmed a U.S. presence on the ground. Defence Minister Christopher Musa said a team was working in Nigeria but declined to give further details.
The move follows mounting pressure from Washington after President Donald Trump publicly accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christians from Islamist militants and warned of possible U.S. military action. Trump has repeatedly described killings of Christians in Nigeria as a genocide — a characterization strongly rejected by the Nigerian government and many independent experts, who say violence in the country claims both Christian and Muslim lives and is driven by a mixture of jihadist insurgency, banditry, and communal conflict. The Nigerian government says its operations target armed groups that attack civilians regardless of religion.
Tensions with Washington also played out in other policy steps: Nigeria has been designated a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. — a congressional designation applied to countries accused of systematic religious freedom violations — a label that fed U.S. scrutiny and diplomatic pressure.
Analysts say the insurgency has intensified in recent months, with Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters stepping up attacks on military convoys and civilians. AFRICOM framed the deployment as part of an expanded U.S.–Nigerian collaboration that includes intelligence sharing and material support, intended to augment Nigeria’s own multi-year counterinsurgency efforts.
U.S. and Nigerian officials have so far provided only limited public detail about the size, scope, and rules governing the small U.S. team’s activities, leaving the exact footprint and operational role of American personnel in Nigeria opaque.