Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is in the spotlight after the US confirmed it had sent a small military team to the country to boost cooperation in the fight against jihadist violence, a top US general said on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump’s administration has taken turns pressuring the West African country as it battles jihadists, according to an AFP report.
The two countries have decided to “increase cooperation”, said General Dagvin Anderson, who serves as head of US Africa Command (Africom), days after the United States launched strikes targeting militants in Nigeria.
In a virtual interview, Dagvin Anderson said, “We agreed that we need to work together on the way forward in the region,” without giving details of the team’s activities. The US launched Tomahawk missiles on Christmas Day, December 25, targeting “terrorist scum” in Nigeria, claiming they were responsible for killing Nigerian Christians. Recent US military strikes have hit IS targets in Sokoto state in northwestern Nigeria.
Asserting that this US effort is helping the government and is aimed at expanding the country’s capabilities to combat jihadist violence, the head of the US Africa Command said: “This has led to increased cooperation between our nations to include a small US team that brings some unique capabilities from the United States to expand what Nigeria has been doing for several years.
The chief said last month that the US military would increase equipment supplies and intelligence sharing with Nigeria, AFP reported. The move is part of its efforts to fight jihadists from the Islamic State group.
Consequence of ‘Christian Genocide’?
In the past, the US president has claimed that there is a “genocide” of Christians in Nigeria. Donald Trump has threatened to enter the country “with guns” to avenge “Christian genocide”. However, the Nigerian government denies all such claims. Trump claims there is a “genocide” of Christians in Nigeria, which the Nigerian government has denied.
According to many independent experts, security crises in the country have resulted in the deaths of Christians and Muslims, often indiscriminately.
Turning to the religious demographics of Nigeria, we find that it is broadly divided between the Christian-majority South and the Muslim-majority North. US military support would be concentrated in northwest Nigeria and the northeast, according to Africom. The Islamist group Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) dominate the region and are blamed for nearly two decades of unrest.
It is the first recognition of US forces on the ground in Nigeria since the December strikes. The development comes nearly a month after US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores following airstrikes in Caracas.
