August 31, (THEWILL) – The United States has expressed its readiness to partner Nigeria to identify sponsors of Boko Haram and other terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the West African country.
This was disclosed on Monday night at the US embassy in Abuja by the Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Leonard, during a round-table interaction with journalists on military cooperation between her nation and the host country.
When asked what the US would do to help the country identify the sponsors of terrorism in the country, Leonard said, “That is something we are very eager to partner Nigeria on. I have had at least three conversations in the last two months on this subject. I won’t like to go into details.”
She dismissed the notion by some Nigerians that the relations between Nigeria and the US would crash like Afghanistan, stressing that the two countries have strong bilateral relations unlike that of Afghanistan.
She added, “I hear people making the analogy with Afghanistan a lot, it does not match up. When you listen to what President Biden said on how troops went to Afghanistan in the first place, it was because they were in a horrible tragedy, over 3,000 Americans were killed.
“That is a different construct: Two sovereign nations that have had strong bilateral relations. I don’t actually think the two match up.”
Also speaking, the Commander, US Air Forces in Europe, General Jeffrey Harrigian, told journalists that the purchase of Tucano fighter jets was an opportunity to further strengthen US-Nigeria relations as well as curb insecurity.
He said, “The A -29 Super Tucano gives us an opportunity to reconnect our relations with Nigeria”.
THEWILL reports that Nigeria is currently facing its worst security crisis birthed by the activities of terrorists groups and bandits who have been on rampage, killing, maiming, kidnapping and raping.
