United States to send 200 soldiers to Nigeria to train the army

(Patria) - The United States plans to send about 200 soldiers to Nigeria to train the African nation's army to fight militants, a US official said, a few weeks after President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on what he called ISIS targets.

The US military announced last week that it had sent a small team of soldiers to Nigeria without specifying the number, marking the first acknowledgment of US forces on the ground since Washington carried out airstrikes on Christmas Day, Reuters reported.

Trump said there could be more US military action in Nigeria, and Reuters reported that the United States has been conducting surveillance flights over the country from Ghana since at least the end of November.

The official said the 200 soldiers would supplement the few US military personnel already in Nigeria to assist local forces.

Nigeria has been under intense pressure from Washington to act after Trump claimed the West African nation is failing to protect Christians from militants operating in the northwest.

The Nigerian government denies any systematic persecution of Christians, saying it targets militants and other armed groups that attack and kill both Christians and Muslims.

Fighters from Boko Haram and ISIS in West Africa Province (ISWAP) have intensified attacks on military convoys and civilians, and the northwest remains the epicenter of the seventeen-year militant insurgency.

Nigeria's population of over 230 million people is roughly equally divided between Christians, who dominate the south, and Muslims, who dominate the north.