The United States plans to send approximately 200 troops to Nigeria to train the military to aid in its fight against Islamist militants, according to a U.S. official.
The decision comes only weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered air strikes against what he claims are Islamic State targets.
Trump stated that there could be increased military action in Nigeria. Reuters reported earlier that U.S. has been conducting surveillance flights over the country via Ghana since November last year.
According to the official, the 200 troops from the United States will be supplementing a handful of U.S. military personnel that are already in Nigeria, aiding the local forces.
Trump Claims Targeted Christian Persecution
Nigeria is dealing with immense pressure from U.S. to act after Trump claimed that the West African nation had been unsuccessful at protecting its Christian populations from Islamist militants that operate in the northwest region.
The Nigerian government has denied any systematic persecution of Christians and claims that it is targeting Islamist fighters and other armed groups that target both Christians and Muslims.
Nigeria’s population, over 230 million people, have a nearly even division of Christians, who predominantly occupy the south and Muslims, who occupy the west.
The northwest of Nigeria has been the epicentre of a 17-year-long Islamist insurgency. Two major groups that actively fight insurgency are Boko Haram, a separatist militant group founded in 2002, that has carried out bombings and mass abductions to further their cause, and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), an administrative division under IS, that also fights insurgency in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Attacks on military convoys and civilians from both groups have considerably intensified.
(With inputs from Reuters)
