The United States is preparing to withdraw about 200 troops deployed to Nigeria as part of efforts to combat Islamist militants, according to a report by The New York Times.
The troops, deployed earlier this year, are expected to leave Nigeria by the end of September, while small teams of trainers and intelligence analysts will remain in the country, the report said.
US and Nigerian officials told the newsmen that the deployment, though relatively small, had produced significant results and could serve as a model for future US counterterrorism operations in Africa.
The planned withdrawal follows a May operation in the Lake Chad Basin that killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, described by US officials as the second-in-command of ISIS.
Last month, Dagvin Anderson, commander of the US Africa Command, said the operation had significantly weakened ISIS leadership in Nigeria and globally.
Anderson also said Nigeria had remained active since the operation, working to prevent terrorist groups from becoming self-sufficient.
He added that the US would maintain its intelligence-sharing partnership with Nigeria despite the troop withdrawal.
The development comes weeks after Nigeria and the US held their second round of discussions in Washington under a joint working group focused on protecting Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.
The working group was established after US President Donald Trump designated Nigeria a country of particular concern over allegations of persecution of Christians, claims the Nigerian government has rejected.
Despite the US military involvement, insecurity remains widespread across Nigeria.
Nigeria has maintained that the country’s security crisis has several causes and cannot be attributed to a single group or conflict.
Security challenges include terrorism spilling over from the Sahel, banditry in the North-West, attacks by ISWAP and Boko Haram, farmer-herder clashes, as well as cult and militia activities.
Ladd Serwat, Africa senior analyst at ACLED, previously told TheCable that Islamist militant groups accounted for only a small proportion of the overall violence in Nigeria.
He described the country’s security situation as “a very complicated” mix of different threats.
