Nigeria Under Increased US Surveillance Amid Reports of Christian Attacks

According to flight tracking data and US sources quoted by Reuters, the US has been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over significant portions of Nigeria since late November, indicating increased security collaboration between the two nations.

According to the exclusive assessment released on Monday, it was impossible to independently verify the surveillance missions’ purpose.

According to Reuters, the planes came after Donald Trump threatened to militarily interfere in Nigeria in November due to what he said was the government’s inability to stop violence against Christian communities.

Additionally, a US pilot employed by a missionary organization was abducted in neighboring Niger months prior to the monitoring operations.

According to flight tracking data for December, the contractor-operated aircraft usually took off from Ghana, flew across Nigeria, and landed back in Accra.

Tenax Aerospace, a Mississippi-based company that supplies special mission planes and collaborates closely with the US military, was identified as the operator by the data, according to its website. Requests for comment were not answered by the business.

The operation seemed to be operating out of Accra, which he referred to as “a known hub for the U.S. military’s logistics network in Africa,” according to Liam Karr, the Africa team lead at the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, who examined the flight data.

According to Karr, the flights indicated that Washington was reestablishing its intelligence capabilities in the area following Niger’s request last year to withdraw US forces from a significant desert air base and turn to Russia for security support.

“We’ve seen a resumption of intelligence and surveillance flights in Nigeria in recent weeks,” he told Reuters.

The airplane, according to a former US official, was one of several assets that the Trump administration transferred to Ghana in November.

The official stated that the missions included following the kidnapped US pilot and obtaining data on extremist groups operating in Nigeria, such as Boko Haram and its splinter faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province, though it was unclear how many planes remained there.

The aircraft had been passing above Nigeria, according to a current US official, but they would not elaborate due to diplomatic concerns.

According to a different administration official, Washington and Nigeria are still collaborating to “address religious violence, anti-Christian attacks, and the destabilizing spread of terrorism.”

The Pentagon stated in a statement that the US government had “productive meetings” with Nigeria after Trump’s remarks about the nation, but it would not comment on intelligence operations.

Requests for comments were not answered by Ghana’s deputy defense minister or Nigeria’s military spokeswoman.

Nigeria has always stated that armed organizations target both Muslims and Christians, contending that US allegations of Christian persecution oversimplify a complicated security situation and ignore initiatives to defend religious freedom.

At a meeting on November 20 between US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Nuhu Ribadu, a Nigerian security source informed Reuters that the US decided to use air assets for intelligence collection.

A request for comment was not answered by a Nigerian military spokesman.

On November 7, the Tenax Aerospace aircraft was visible on flight monitoring data at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. The US Special Operations Command headquarters are located on MacDill.

Days after the high-level security meeting, on November 24, the aircraft made a flight to Ghana. Since then, it has flown over Nigeria nearly every day.

The data indicates that the aircraft is a Gulfstream V, a long-range commercial jet frequently outfitted for espionage, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.