The military high command on Thursday confirmed the presence of United States troops in Nigeria but dismissed suggestions of combat deployment.
It clarified that the American personnel are not engaged in ground operations or combat roles, stressing that their presence is limited to capacity building, professional military education, intelligence sharing, logistics support and strategic dialogue with Nigerian forces.
The Director of Defence Information, Samaila Uba, a Major-General, while reacting to reports that raised concerns about the US forces deployment, said the cooperation was aimed at addressing shared security concerns, including terrorism and transnational threats.
AFRICOM commander, Dagvin Anderson, while speaking during a virtual press briefing, said the deployment was made at the request of the Nigerian government and was strictly focused on providing specialised intelligence assistance to support counter-terrorism efforts.