Three United States aircraft carrying troops and weapons have reportedly arrived in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
According to the New York Times, the first plane arrived in the capital city on Thursday night, noting officials from both countries said the first batch of roughly 100 US troops will arrive in Nigeria over the weekend.
By Friday evening, three planes were reported to have landed in Maiduguri, with equipment being offloaded from one of them.
These first arrivals mark the start of C-17 cargo planes heading to three different sites across Nigeria, a US Defence Department official told the newspaper, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of operational details.
More aircraft transporting personnel and equipment are scheduled to arrive this weekend, with additional flights planned over the coming weeks, the official added.
The spokesperson for Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters, Samaila Uba, a major general, said the US troops would not engage in combat operations. He mentioned this to the Wall Street Journal a few days ago when the US-based paper reported that the United States will deploy 200 troops to Nigeria.
“These personnel do not serve in a combat capacity and will not assume a direct operational role,” Mr Uba also told The New York Times. “Nigerian forces retain full command authority, make all operational decisions and will lead all missions on Nigerian sovereign territory.”
Mr. Uba said the deployment stemmed from recommendations made by a US-Nigeria joint working group and that the forces would serve in an advisory capacity at multiple sites.
The deployment comes after months of mounting pressure from President Trump, who has strongly criticised Nigeria’s government for what he describes as its failure to adequately protect Christians from deadly attacks carried out by Islamist militants and armed groups.
