ABUJA, Nigeria
The United
States says the Al-Qaeda insurgent group has started to penetrate the
north-western part of Nigeria.
Dagvin Anderson, commander of the
US special operations command, Africa, who disclosed this during a briefing,
said the group is also expanding to other parts of West Africa.
In his
remarks which The
Africa obtained from the US Department of State, Anderson said the
US will continue to partner with Nigeria in sharing intelligence.
“We have
engaged with Nigeria and continue to engage with them in intel sharing and in
understanding what these violent extremists are doing,” he said.
“And that
has been absolutely critical to their engagements up in the Borno state and
into an emerging area of northwest Nigeria that we’re seeing al-Qaida starting
to make some inroads in.
“So, this
intelligence sharing is absolutely vital and we stay fully engaged with the
government of Nigeria to provide them an understanding of what these terrorists
are doing, what Boko Haram is doing, what ISIS-West Africa is doing, and how
ISIS and al-Qaida are looking to expand further south into the littoral areas.”
Anderson
regretted that despite successes recorded in previous years, there have been
setback, adding: “We as a community of international nations, keep thinking we
have defeated them or we have put them on their back foot and that they’re just
moments from disintegration.”
“I think
there’s two factors in that. One, it goes to that each government has to
focus on this and provide that focus for international partners to engage
with,” the US general said.
“The other
part of this is we can’t underestimate the threat these violent extremist
organisations pose. We, as a community of international nations, keep
thinking we have defeated them or we have put them on their back foot and that
they’re just moments from disintegration.
“I think
after 20 years we have seen they are very resilient organisations that,
although small, they’re able to leverage social media and other forms of media
to have an outsized voice and that they continue to recruit and they continue
to find opportunities.”
Anderson
said for international efforts to yield desired results in the fight against
terrorism in Nigeria, the government must take the lead.
“When it
comes to Nigeria in general, Nigeria, obviously, is a critical nation to West
Africa. It is a critical nation and we realize that Nigeria is a lynchpin,” he
said.
”For that
to have an effect against the VEOs and to have an effect against these stressors,
it really takes the Government of Nigeria to lead that effort and to build that
energy to coalesce around.
“So no
nation can come in and fix that problem for Nigeria. We can assist with
that – and it’s the United States can assist, the United Kingdom, other
countries can come in, many countries can come and assist with that partnership
– but ultimately it takes leadership from Nigeria in order for us to focus our
efforts.”
There has been an increase in attacks in Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto and other states in the north-west.
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