US withdraws most of its Troops from Nigeria

The United States has withdrawn most of the troops it deployed for a joint counterterrorism mission in Nigeria’s Lake Chad Basin, while maintaining intelligence-sharing and other security cooperation with the Nigerian government

The Commander of US Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, disclosed this during a digital press briefing on the outcome of the African Chiefs of Defence Conference 2026.

According to Anderson, the military operation in the Lake Chad Basin has ended, prompting the withdrawal of most US personnel assigned to the mission.

However, he stressed that the partnership with Nigeria remains active through intelligence collaboration requested by the Nigerian government.

“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.

“And so — and then we have withdrawn much of our forces that were just there for that operation, but are continuing the partnership that Nigeria has asked for to help continue with the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 said.

The US military chief described Nigeria as a strong and capable ally with a well-trained military, noting that cooperation between both countries has produced significant gains in the fight against ISIS.

He added that intelligence sharing between the United States and Nigeria contributed to a successful operation that targeted the second-in-command of the ISIS global network.

“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 we have learned in the counterterrorist 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.

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