The US army provided counter-insurgency training to Nigerian troops battling a rise in attacks by Islamist militants, the Nigerian military has revealed. According to the UK Guardian.
The paper reports that some Nigerian battalions have received training in the US adding that the Nigerian Army is in the process of setting up a division that is effectively looking at warfare tactics.
More than 100 people have been killed in recent days by the radical Muslim sect Boko Haram, in Nigeria's north-east. One rights activist described it as "a state of armed Islamist insurgency" likely to spread.
US officials have confirmed that it has a longstanding deal with Nigerian soldiers travelling to America for training.
"We have had a mil-mil relationship with the Nigerians for decades, principally supporting their peacekeeping efforts in Africa (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Darfur) and around the globe. In recent years, and at their request, we have also worked with them on their nascent counter-force. We do not know if any of these elements have been deployed in the north."
Nigeria has sought to crush the group with military force but faces criticism from human rights activists for alleged extra-judicial killings.
US officials confirmed it has a longstanding deal with Nigeria with soldiers travelling to America for training. It could not comment on whether the exercises was aimed at combating Boko Haram.
The Americans likened the Boko Haram sect to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Formed in 2003 and mainly based in the north eastern part of the country. The sect has overshadowed the Niger Delta militants and has turned into the country's main security threat.
The group's official name is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, which in Arabic means, "People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad". But Hausa-speaking residents in the city of Maiduguri, the group's spiritual home, call it Boko Haram, usually translated as "Western education is forbidden/ sinful".
Over 700 people were killed in a crackdown that lasted five days in Maiduguri and Bauchi after the sect staged attacks in the Nigerian north eastern cities in 2009. Leader of the group, Mohammed Yusuf was captured and later killed but the group didn't die with him. A new leader, Abubakar Shekau revived the group and raided a police station in Maiduguri that housed over hundred members of the sect last year.
The sect is known for using motor-bikes for quick shootings as one of their mode of operation.
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