The United States has been conducting intelligence-gathering surveillance flights over large areas of Nigeria since late November, flight tracking data has revealed
According to Reuters, the surveillance flights signalled closer security cooperation between both two countries heightened diplomatic tensions.
According to the report, the purpose of the flights could not be independently determined.
However, they follow threats made in November by US President Donald Trump to intervene militarily in Nigeria over what he described as the government’s failure to halt violence against Christian communities.
It further revealed that the operations also come months after a US pilot working for a missionary organisation was kidnapped in neighbouring Niger.
The foreign media stated that flight tracking data for December showed that the contractor-operated aircraft typically departs from Ghana, flies over Nigeria and then returns to Accra.
It maintained that the aircraft is operated by Mississippi-based Tenax Aerospace, a company that provides special mission aircraft and works closely with the US military.
The Africa team lead for the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute, Liam Karr, said his analysis of the flight data indicated the operation was being run out of Accra, a known logistics hub for the US military in Africa.
“In recent weeks we’ve seen a resumption of intelligence and surveillance flights in Nigeria,” Karr said in an interview as reported by Reuters.
According to Karr, the flights appeared to signal that Washington was rebuilding intelligence capacity in the region after Niger ordered US troops to leave a major air base last year and instead sought security assistance from Russia.
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