The United States has been carrying out intelligence-gathering flights across Nigeria since late November, signalling increased security cooperation between the two countries, according to flight tracking data and US officials cited by Reuters.
As reported by PUNCH, The purpose of the missions could not be independently verified, but they follow threats by US President Donald Trump in November to intervene militarily in Nigeria over what he described as the government’s failure to halt violence against Christian communities.
Reuters noted that the flights also come months after a US pilot working for a missionary agency was kidnapped in neighbouring Niger.
Flight tracking data for December shows that the contractor-operated aircraft typically departs from Ghana, flies over Nigeria, and returns to Accra. The operator was identified as Mississippi-based Tenax Aerospace, which provides special mission aircraft and collaborates closely with the US military.
The Africa team lead at the Critical Threats Project of the American Enterprise Institute, Liam Karr, who analysed the data, said the operation appeared to be running out of Accra, “a known hub for the U.S. military’s logistics network in Africa.”
“In recent weeks, we’ve seen a resumption of intelligence and surveillance flights in Nigeria,” Karr told Reuters.
Officials said the missions include tracking the kidnapped US pilot and gathering intelligence on militant groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, while Washington continues to coordinate with Nigeria to “address religious violence, anti-Christian attacks, and the destabilising spread of terrorism.”
The development comes amid worsening insecurity in Nigeria, with President Bola Tinubu last month declaring a security emergency and ordering mass recruitment into the army and police following deadly attacks, kidnappings, and the abduction of over 300 schoolchildren in northern states.
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