The United States on Tuesday said it had delivered “critical military supplies” to Nigeria after staging Christmas Day strikes targeting militants in the restive northwest.
The delivery is the latest sign of increased security cooperation between Washington and Abuja, and also comes as Nigeria’s national security adviser struck a $750,000-per-month deal with a US firm to lobby President Donald Trump’s administration.
On the evening of December 25, the United States struck sites in Sokoto state in what Nigeria called a “joint” operation on targets linked to the Islamic State group.
“This delivery supports Nigeria’s ongoing operations and emphasizes our shared security partnership,” US Africa Command said on X, without giving details.
The December bombardments marked a turnaround after ties plummeted late last year when Trump said violence in Nigeria amounted to the “persecution” and “genocide” of Christians.
The Nigerian government and independent analysts reject that framing, long used by the US and European religious right.
Africa’s most populous country, roughly split between a mostly Muslim north and mostly Christian south, faces myriad and sometimes overlapping armed conflicts, including a jihadist insurgency raging since 2009.
Separatists in the southeast, who have long maintained a lobbying presence in Washington, have also used the “Christian genocide” narrative.
– Lobbying effort –
According to new disclosure forms filed with the US Department of Justice, viewed by AFP on Tuesday, Abuja has also entered into the lobbying fray.
Security chief Nuhu Ribadu hired US lobbying firm DCI Group in mid-December to help Abuja communicate “its actions to protect… Christian communities and (maintain) US support in countering west African jihadist groups and other destabilising elements”.
Days before the US strikes, Nigeria’s information minister said the “spat” with Washington had been resolved, “culminating in a strengthened partnership between America and Nigeria”.
Last week, a Nigerian source familiar with the post-strike security arrangement told AFP the Nigerian air force would take the lead in future strikes, with the United States supplying intelligence from reconnaissance flights.
Abuja remains open to future US strikes, the source said.
While the strikes marked an improvement from Trump’s earlier threats of unilateral military intervention, they caused headaches in Abuja when the US leader took complete credit for them.
Adding to the uncertainty around Nigeria-US relations, Trump recently told The New York Times: “I’d love to make it a one-time strike. But if they continue to kill Christians it will be a many-time strike.”
Nigeria remains labelled a “country of particular concern”, a State Department designation over alleged religious freedom violations.
The Nigerian government said the strikes targeted Islamic State group fighters, members of the Lakurawa jihadist group and “bandit” gangs, though it is unknown how many were killed, and from which groups.
However, local and international journalists have only been able to confirm damage to farmland and civilian buildings as well as injuries among civilians.
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