The United States has sent a “small team” of troops to Nigeria in response to recent security cooperation.

Dagvin Anderson, the general in command of US Africa Command (AFRICOM), addressed the issue during a news briefing on Tuesday.

It is the first admission of US troops on the ground in Nigeria since the Donald Trump administration conducted missile attacks against terrorists in Sokoto on Christmas Day.

Anderson stated that the move came after his meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Rome late last year.

“That has led to increased collaboration between our nations, to include a small U.S. team that brings some unique capabilities from the United States in order to augment what Nigeria has been doing for several years,” Anderson said.

He did not go into additional depth. It is also unclear when the squad landed in Nigeria.

Allison Hooker, the US undersecretary of state, led a delegation of eight federal agencies to Abuja a few weeks ago for a bilateral working group meeting with Nigerian security authorities.

Nigeria’s team was led by Nuhu Ribadu, the country’s national security adviser.

The conference was held in reaction to Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern’.

Trump has threatened to deploy soldiers into Nigeria “with guns blazing to wipe out the terrorists who are killing our Christians.”

On December 25, the United States conducted airstrikes on two terrorist strongholds in Bauni woodland in Tangaza LGA, Sokoto State.