The United States has deployed MQ-9 “Reaper” drones to Nigeria to support the West African country’s military with intelligence and training, a U.S. defense official said Monday. The drones are part of a broader security partnership that began after the arrival of 200 U.S. troops last month, which AP reported as focused on training and intelligence support.
AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command, said the MQ-9 drones and the troops are working “alongside their Nigerian counterparts to provide intelligence support, advisory assistance, and targeted training in support of the Nigerian Armed Forces.” AFRICOM also said the U.S. troops and the drones are based at Bauchi Airfield, a newly built airport in Nigeria’s northeast.
The AFRICOM spokesperson told AP that the number of MQ-9 drones deployed remains unclear. The MQ-9, also known as Reaper, can fly at altitudes above 40,000 feet and loiter for more than 30 hours, according to the AP report. AP also said the drones have previously been used by the U.S. military and the CIA in conflict operations including Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen.
AP reported that MQ-9 drones can also be used to carry out airstrikes, but AFRICOM said they will only be used in Nigeria for intelligence-gathering and training. The report put the cost of each MQ-9 drone at around $30 million and described separate models for land and sea operations.
The deployment followed a new security partnership agreed on after U.S. President Donald Trump alleged that Christians were being targeted in Nigeria’s security crisis. AP said the U.S. launched strikes against IS forces on Dec. 26, before the MQ-9 deployment was announced.
The U.S. had previously operated a major drone base in neighboring Niger, but AP reported it was shut down after the ruling military junta expelled U.S. troops from the country. With the Niger base closed, the new arrangement shifts U.S. aerial capabilities to Nigeria through the Bauchi Airfield footprint.
Nigeria’s security challenge includes Islamic militant groups active in the north, according to AP’s description. Among them are Boko Haram and a breakaway faction affiliated with the Islamic State group, known as Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP. AP also cited other threats including the IS-linked Lakurawa group and “bandit” groups that specialize in kidnapping for ransom and illegal mining.
AP said the situation in the northeast has recently worsened. It cited three suspected suicide bombings in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, earlier this month, killing at least 23 people and wounding 108 others. No group claimed responsibility for those bombings, AP said, but suspicion quickly fell on Boko Haram, which in 2009 launched an insurgency aimed at enforcing its radical interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law.
AP also said the crisis has expanded beyond Boko Haram to include militants from neighboring Sahel countries, including Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, which claimed its first attack on Nigerian soil last year. AP further reported that more than 40,000 people in Nigeria have been killed since Boko Haram’s insurgency began, citing data from the United Nations.
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