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The United States is increasing military assistance to Nigeria through expanded equipment transfers and deeper intelligence cooperation to counter armed groups affiliated with the Islamic State across Africa, a senior US military official said.
Lieutenant General John Brennan, deputy commander of US Africa Command, said Washington is also maintaining informal communication with the armed forces of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali, despite those countries being governed by military juntas.
Speaking in Abuja on the sidelines of the first meeting of the US-Nigeria Joint Working Group on Security, Brennan said cooperation with Nigerian forces has intensified as the US military adopts a more assertive posture toward Islamic State-linked groups operating across the continent.
Under the current US administration, Brennan said the US has become “a lot more aggressive” in working with partner militaries “to target, kinetically, the threats, mainly ISIS.”
He said militant activity across Africa is increasingly interconnected, noting that, “from Somalia to Nigeria, the problem set is connected.”
“So we’re trying to take it apart and then provide partners with the information they need,” Brennan noted.
Brennan said the US approach has focused on enabling partner forces by easing restrictions and expanding access to equipment and capabilities.
“It’s been about more enabling partners and then providing them equipment and capabilities with less restrictions so that they can be more successful,” he said.
He said US intelligence support would not be limited to protecting Christians.
Brennan stated that future US assistance would concentrate on intelligence sharing to support Nigerian air operations in that region and in northeastern Nigeria, following US strikes in northwest Sokoto State in December of last year.
The northeast has faced a jihadist insurgency since 2009 involving Boko Haram and its rival faction, Islamic State West Africa Province.
ISWAP is the US’s “most concerning group”, according to Brennan.
He said US-Nigerian cooperation going forward would include “the whole gamut of intel sharing”, including sharing “tactics, techniques, and procedures, as well as enabling them to procure more equipment.”
He claimed that militants associated with the Islamic State Sahel Province, a group that is usually active in neighbouring Niger, were the target of the initial US strikes.
Beyond Nigeria, Brennan said the US will “still collaborate” with military authorities in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, even though formal security cooperation has been reduced since coups between 2020 and 2023 toppled civilian governments in the three countries.
“We have actually shared information with some of them to attack key terrorist targets,” Brennan said.
“We still talk to our military partners across the Sahelian states, even though it’s not official.”
Brennan also said the US is not seeking to establish new military bases in West Africa following the withdrawal of American forces from Niger.
“We’re not in the market to create a drone base anywhere,” he said, referring to the closure of US drone operations in Agadez.
“We are much more focused on getting capability to the right place at the right time and then leaving.”
He added that the US does not “seek long-term basing in any of the western African countries.”
