US to send 200 troops to Nigeria to train army

Nigerian soldiers from the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) sit on parked vehicles during training at the MNJTF military base, Sector 3 Headquarters, in Monguno, Borno state, Nigeria, on July 5, 2025. Twelve checkpoints manned by the Nigerian army control the various entrances to Monguno. Monguno's huge fortifications have kept the garrison town mostly secure even as northeastern Nigeria has seen a recent surge in attacks on military bases by jihadists fighting a grinding 16 year war. Fighting in Borno may have eased since the conflict's highpoint in 2015 as jihadists have been forced back. But militants from Islamic State West Africa Province or rival Boko Haram have attacked or temporarily overrun a dozen military bases since the start of the year. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP) (Photo by JORIS BOLOMEY/AFP via Getty Images) — The troops will help train Nigeria’s military to fight Islamist militants, officials said (Image credit: Joris Bolomey / AFP / Getty Images)

What happened

The Trump administration is sending about 200 troops to Nigeria to help train its military to fight Islamist militants, U.S. and Nigerian officials said Tuesday.

The deployment comes weeks after President Donald Trump accused Nigeria’s government of failing to protect Christians from terrorist attacks in the West African country.

Who said what

The “fresh U.S. forces” will “supplement a handful of U.S. military personnel already in Nigeria” to help local military units “identify targets for military strikes,” The Wall Street Journal said. Trump late last year threatened to send in U.S. troops “guns-a-blazing” to avenge what he called a “Christian genocide.” But in this deployment, “U.S. troops aren’t going to be involved in direct combat or operations,” Nigerian military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba told the Journal.

This “startling turn” in U.S.-Nigerian relations follows an “intense, yearslong push led by Christian activists, Republican lawmakers and American celebrities seeking U.S. intervention” in Nigeria’s “long-simmering security crisis,” The New York Times said. Nigeria rejected Trump’s claim that it has failed to protect Christians, but “U.S. military leaders who for years have complained about prickly relations with the Nigerian military say the shift has opened the door to increased intelligence sharing and military planning.”

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

What next?

The new U.S. forces are “expected to arrive in Nigeria over the coming weeks,” the Journal said. “Just how effective the increased U.S. involvement in Nigeria has been or will be is an open question,” the Times said. A salvo of U.S. “Tomahawk missiles fired on Dec. 25, valued at about $32 million,” landed in “overwhelmingly Muslim” northwest Nigeria, but mostly “hit empty fields and vacant militant hide-outs,” according to residents.

Explore More

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.