US sends aid to Nigeria's military in security partnership

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Flintlock African are seen during training in Volta, Ghana, March 14, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Charles Brock via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service - DVIDS)

LAGOS  -  The United States has delivered critical military supplies to Nigeria to bolster the West African nation's operations, the U.S. military's Africa Command (AFRICOM) said on Tuesday.

The delivery came after the U.S. carried out a strike targeting Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria last month.

AFRICOM said in a post on X that the delivery in the Nigerian capital Abuja "supports Nigeria's ongoing operations and emphasises our shared security partnership". 

AFRICOM did not specify what kinds of equipment it had delivered to Nigeria, which has been battling Islamist insurgents in the northeast for the past 15 years as well as criminal kidnapping gangs, mostly in the northwest.

Last month, AFRICOM said the U.S. military had carried out an airstrike in Sokoto state in coordination with Nigerian authorities and had killed multiple Islamic State militants.

Nigeria’s foreign ministry said the strike was part of ongoing security cooperation with the U.S., involving intelligence sharing and strategic coordination to target militant groups.

Reuters reported last month that the U.S. had been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over large parts of Nigeria since late November.

 (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by Gareth Jones // REUTERS)