By Lizzy Chirkpi
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has dismissed reports that the United States has withdrawn all its military personnel from Nigeria, clarifying that only troops deployed for a specific counterterrorism mission in the Lake Chad Basin have returned after completing their assignment.
Director of Defence Information, Major General Markus Kangye (for the Defence Headquarters), speaking on Friday, said the personnel that departed were part of a temporary deployment and should not be mistaken for the US military personnel permanently engaged in intelligence sharing, training and joint counterterrorism operations with the Nigerian Armed Forces.
He said the longstanding security partnership between Nigeria and the United States remains unchanged.
“The Commander was primarily talking about the additional forces that came to execute the mission in Lake Chad. Initial US personnel are still in Nigeria,” Uba said.
He added that intelligence cooperation between both countries has continued without interruption.
“The partnership between Nigeria and the US is unchanged with key information sharing ongoing,” he added.
Explaining the deployment, Uba said the United States occasionally sends additional personnel to support specific operations, after which they return upon completion of their assignments.
“As we saw in May, there are times that require additional forces to execute specific missions.
“Those forces are intended for short periods of time only.
“Nigeria and US continue to work closely together to disrupt and eliminate shared threats and that remains unchanged.
“It should therefore be noted that going forward where the need arises for peculiar competencies, personnel and resources it would be provided.”
The clarification followed media reports quoting the Commander of US Air Forces in Africa, General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, as saying that the United States had withdrawn most of the additional troops deployed to Nigeria after the successful completion of a joint counterterrorism operation in the Lake Chad Basin.
Speaking during a virtual briefing after the African Chiefs of Defence Conference 2026, Anderson said the operation had significantly disrupted the activities of ISIS in the region.
“And so that operation in the Lake Chad Basin of Nigeria not only helped the countries in that immediate region; it also helps countries globally as that disrupts the ISIS network,” Anderson said.
“And so, we have withdrawn much of our forces that were just there for that operation, but are continuing the partnership that Nigeria has asked for to help continue with the intelligence sharing and the understanding that’s necessary to be able to prosecute these difficult tasks,” he added.
The US Air Force commander described Nigeria as one of Washington’s key security partners in Africa and praised the Nigerian military’s capabilities as well as the growing intelligence cooperation between both countries.
“I think the partnership that we’ve shown recently with Nigeria, where Nigeria’s a very capable and large country it’s got a strong economy; it’s got a large, educated population; it’s got a very capable military.
“But there are things that that we have learned in the counter terrorist fight over several years that we were able to assist and integrate with them to help them with their intelligence and help with the intelligence sharing that eventually led to a cooperative effort to where we were able to bring some unique capabilities that the U.S. brings and be able to prosecute together the number two leader within the ISIS or Daesh organization who is responsible for much of their global operations, their global media, and their recruiting,” he said.
The Defence Headquarters maintained that the conclusion of the temporary deployment in the Lake Chad Basin does not signal any reduction in military cooperation between Nigeria and the United States, stressing that intelligence sharing, training and joint counterterrorism operations remain ongoing.