A report by Reuters has suggested that the United States has been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over large parts of Nigeria since late November.
Citing December flight tracking data and current and former US officials, the report said the US contractor-operated aircraft used for the surveillance missions typically takes off from Ghana and flies over Nigeria before returning to Accra, the Ghanaian capital.
It is not immediately clear what information the flights are intended to obtain.
A former US official told Reuters the aircraft is among several assets the President Donald Trump administration moved to Ghana in November, a hub for the American military’s logistics network in Africa.
It is also unclear how many aircraft remain in Ghana.
Flight tracking data linked the operator to be Tenax Aerospace, a special mission aircraft provider which works closely with the US military.
The former official said the missions include tracking a US pilot who was kidnapped in neighbouring Niger Republic and gathering intelligence on militant groups operating in Nigeria.
A serving US official also confirmed that the aircraft has been flying over Nigeria but declined to provide details due to the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue.
According to flight tracking data, the Tenax Aerospace aircraft flew to Ghana on November 24.
The data showed that the aircraft has flown over Nigeria almost daily since the start of the mission.
The aircraft is a Gulfstream V, a long-range business jet often modified for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, according to the data.
On November 1, Trump asked the US department of war to prepare for “possible action” to wipe out Islamic terrorists in Nigeria.
The threat came a day after the US president re-designated Nigeria a ‘country of particular concern’ in response to allegations of a Christian genocide in the country.
Trump blamed radical Islamists for the “mass slaughter” of Christians in Nigeria and said he would instruct the department of war to send troops into the West African country “guns-a-blazing” to wipe out the perpetrators.
On November 21, Nuhu Ribadu, the national security adviser (NSA), met Pete Hegseth, US defence secretary, over the matter.
After the meeting, Hegseth said his department would work “aggressively” with Nigeria to end the alleged “persecution of Christians by jihadist terrorists”.
Ribadu and Hegseth’s meeting held the same day congress heard allegations of Christian persecution in Nigeria.
Weeks after the hearing, Riley Moore, congressman, said Nigeria and the US were close to reaching an agreement on a “strategic security framework” aimed at tackling terrorism in the West African country.
Moore spoke after a “fact-finding mission” to Nigeria to examine allegations of a Christian genocide in the country.
The lawmaker did not give details of the security framework.
