Pentagon to deploy roughly 200 troops to Nigeria

The United States is preparing to send troops to Nigeria where they will train the country’s armed forces as they battle an Islamist insurgency , authorities in Lagos said recently.

Roughly 200 troops are expected to be deployed in the coming weeks, according to a U.S. official. They will supplement a small team of American military officers already embedded with Nigerian forces . The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the imminent deployment.

Nigerian officials insisted that the new American contingent will not be engaging in combat.

Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Defense Headquarters, said in a statement that the troops will instead serve as “technical and training personnel.”

The deployment comes more than a month after President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces had bombed what he termed “ISIS Terrorist Scum” in Nigeria on Christmas night.

U.S. Africa Command said its preliminary assessment indicated that “multiple ISIS terrorists” in the Sokoto State were killed in the strikes.

The timing of the operation, the president later acknowledged, was largely symbolic, noting he had delayed the attack to deliver a “Christmas present” to the insurgents.

In the run-up to the operation, Trump let fly a fusillade of Truth Social posts demanding the protection of Christians in Nigeria – who he claims are being “mass slaughtered” – or else the U.S. military would go “guns-a-blazing” into Africa’s most populous country.

“When Christians come under attack, [their assailants] know they’re going to be attacked violently and viciously by President Trump,” Trump declared during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill last week. “I know it’s not a nice thing to say, but that’s the way it is.”

The Nigerian government, meanwhile, has rejected the claim of a Christian genocide, saying terrorist groups, including Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa, have made no distinction between Christians and Muslims in the country.

Extremists have killed thousands at churches, mosques and villages alike. Beyond sectarian tensions, the violence also stems from longstanding disputes over land and water resources.

Gen. Dagvin Anderson, commander of AFRICOM, said the U.S. was committed to partnered collaboration to combat the terrorist threat in the area.

“U.S. Africa Command is working with Nigerian and regional partners to increase counterterrorism cooperation efforts related to on-going violence and threats against innocent lives,” he said in a statement after the Christmas night attack.

“Our goal is to protect Americans and disrupt violent extremist organizations wherever they are.”

Tanya Noury is a reporter for Military Times and Defense News, with coverage focusing on the White House and Pentagon.

拉各斯当局近日表示，美国正准备向尼日利亚派遣军队，训练该国武装部队对抗伊斯兰叛乱。

据一位美国官员透露，预计未来几周将有约200名美军士兵部署到尼日利亚。他们将增援一支已随尼日利亚部队部署的小型美军军官小组。《华尔街日报》率先报道了此次即将进行的部署。

尼日利亚官员坚称，新来的美国部队不会参与战斗。

尼日利亚国防总部发言人萨迈拉·乌巴少将在一份声明中表示，这些部队将转而担任“技术和训练人员”。

此次部署距离美国总统唐纳德·特朗普宣布美军在圣诞节当晚轰炸尼日利亚境内他所称的“ISIS恐怖分子渣滓”已过去一个多月。

美国非洲司令部表示，初步评估显示，索科托州有“多名ISIS恐怖分子”在空袭中丧生。

总统后来承认，此次行动的时机很大程度上是象征性的，他指出，他推迟了袭击是为了给叛乱分子送上一份“圣诞礼物”。

在行动开始前，特朗普在 Truth Social 上发布了一系列帖子，要求保护尼日利亚的基督徒——他声称这些基督徒正在遭受“大规模屠杀”——否则美国军队将“火力全开”进入非洲人口最多的国家。

“当基督徒遭受攻击时，（攻击者）知道他们会遭到特朗普总统的猛烈抨击，”特朗普上周在国会山举行的全国祈祷早餐会上发表讲话时宣称。“我知道这话不好听，但事实就是如此。”

与此同时，尼日利亚政府否认了基督教种族灭绝的说法，称包括博科圣地和ISIS-西非在内的恐怖组织在该国并未区分基督徒和穆斯林。

极端分子在教堂、清真寺和村庄等地杀害了数千人。除了教派冲突之外，暴力事件还源于长期以来对土地和水资源的争夺。

美国非洲司令部司令达格文·安德森将军表示，美国致力于与伙伴合作，打击该地区的恐怖主义威胁。

“美国非洲司令部正与尼日利亚和地区伙伴合作，加强反恐合作，以应对持续不断的暴力事件和针对无辜生命的威胁，”他在圣诞夜袭击事件后发表声明说。

“我们的目标是保护美国人民，并打击任何地方的暴力极端主义组织。”

Tanya Noury 是《军事时报》和《防务新闻》的记者，她的报道主要集中在白宫和五角大楼。