The United States has pulled back many of its troops in Nigeria following the May operation that killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the second-in-command of ISIS, in the Lake Chad Basin.
Dagvin Anderson, commander of US Africa Command (AFRICOM), announced the development on Thursday at a press briefing in Luanda, Angola after the conclusion of the 2026 African chiefs of defence conference.
He said the US, would however, retain its intelligence partnership with Nigeria.
Speaking on security challenges in Africa and the US approach to supporting partners without external interference, the AFRICOM commander cited the operation that killed Al-Minuki as an example.
“One quick example of not having external interference is I think the partnership that we’ve shown recently with Nigeria, where Nigeria’s a very capable and large country – it’s got a strong economy; it’s got a large, educated population; it’s got a very capable military,” Anderson said.
“But there are things that we have learned in the counterterrorist fight over several years that we were able to assist and integrate with them to help them with their intelligence and help with the intelligence sharing that eventually led to a cooperative effort to where we were able to bring some unique capabilities that the US brings and be able to prosecute together the number two leader within the ISIS or Daesh organisation who is responsible for much of the – their global operations, their global media, and their recruiting.
“And so that operation in the Lake Chad Basin of Nigeria not only helped the countries in that immediate region; it also helps countries globally as that disrupts the ISIS network.
“And so, we have withdrawn much of our forces that were just there for that operation but are continuing the partnership that Nigeria has asked for to help continue with the intelligence sharing and the understanding that’s necessary to be able to prosecute these difficult tasks.”
Anderson said the operation significantly degraded ISIS’ leadership in Nigeria and globally.
He added that Nigeria has been “very active” since the May operation, working to eliminate terrorists’ self-sufficiency.
