Killings: US conducts surveillance flights over Nigeria – Report

Trump

The United States has been carrying out intelligence-gathering surveillance flights over large areas of Nigeria since late November, according to flight tracking data and current and former US officials, Reuters reported exclusively on Monday.

The report noted that the surveillance flights signalled closer security cooperation between both two countries heightened diplomatic tensions.

According to Reuters, the purpose of the flights could not be independently determined. However, they follow threats made in November by US President Donald Trump to intervene militarily in Nigeria over what he described as the government’s failure to halt violence against Christian communities.

The foreign media added that the operations also come months after a US pilot working for a missionary organisation was kidnapped in neighbouring Niger.

Flight tracking data for December showed that the contractor-operated aircraft typically “departs from Ghana, flies over Nigeria and then returns to Accra,” Reuters reported.

The aircraft is operated by “Mississippi-based Tenax Aerospace”, a company that provides special mission aircraft and works closely with the US military, according to its website. Tenax Aerospace did not respond to requests for comment, it stated.

The Africa team lead for the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute, Liam Karr, said his analysis of the flight data indicated the operation was being run out of Accra, a known logistics hub for the US military in Africa. Punch