The U.S. has dispatched a small team of military officers to Nigeria, a senior U.S. Africa Command general told reporters Tuesday as the two countries deepen cooperation in response to attacks by armed groups. General Dagvin R.M. Anderson said the step followed his meeting with Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu in Rome late last year, a sequence that he said helped produce increased collaboration.
Anderson told reporters that the meeting “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.” He did not provide details on what the team would do or how long it would remain, and it was unclear when the officers arrived in Nigeria.
The announcement comes after the U.S. launched airstrikes on Dec. 25 against a group affiliated with the Islamic State. It also comes amid a diplomatic dispute that has pushed the relationship toward closer military coordination, even as the terms of that cooperation have remained unclear.
In recent months, Nigeria and the United States have clashed diplomatically after threats from then-President Donald Trump to attack Nigeria, an allegation tied to claims that Nigeria was not doing enough to protect Christians. After those allegations, the U.S. designated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern,” a congressional designation for countries the U.S. says are responsible for religious oppression.
Nigeria’s government rejected claims of Christian genocide, saying the armed groups it faces target people regardless of their faith. U.S. officials, meanwhile, have pointed to the threat posed by Islamist armed groups operating in Nigeria, including Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province.
Nigeria has been battling several armed groups across the country. Last month, an armed group launched simultaneous attacks on three churches in northwestern Kaduna state and abducted 168 people, according to the Associated Press report.
The U.S. team is described as the latest step in a broader pattern of defense cooperation between the two countries that has included the supply of military equipment and U.S. reconnaissance missions, with the details of the cooperation’s terms still not fully spelled out.