The United States has withdrawn the troops it deployed to Nigeria earlier this year as part of a counterterrorism support mission, while maintaining its intelligence-sharing partnership with the Nigerian military, according to a US Africa Command official quoted in the report. 

The move ends the physical presence of American personnel stationed at Bauchi Airfield in the country’s northeast, where they had been based since February.

The roughly 200 troops, alongside MQ-9 Reaper drones, were deployed to Nigeria in February following a formal request from Abuja for assistance in tracking and disrupting militant groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province.

The deployment came in the aftermath of US Tomahawk missile strikes on suspected jihadist camps in Sokoto State on Christmas Day 2025, ordered by President Donald Trump after he accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christian communities from escalating attacks. Officials from both countries had consistently described the American personnel as playing a strictly non-combat, advisory role, working through a jointly established intelligence fusion cell that fed real-time data to Nigerian field commanders.

While the physical troop presence has now ended, US and Nigerian officials say the broader security cooperation framework remains intact, with intelligence sharing between both militaries set to continue. The arrangement mirrors the pattern seen in neighbouring Niger, where American forces were pushed out entirely following the 2023 coup, ending years of drone operations that had underpinned regional counterterrorism efforts across the Sahel.

The withdrawal comes as Nigeria continues to battle a deepening security crisis in its north, with thousands of lives lost in 2025 and 2026 to attacks by Boko Haram, ISWAP and other armed groups, alongside a wave of base overruns and mass casualty incidents that have strained the Nigerian military’s capacity. Analysts have previously cautioned that heavy reliance on US support could carry long-term risks for the development of Nigeria’s own armed forces, even as the partnership was credited with improving operational coordination during its months of operation.

Photo Credit: Punch Newspapers