Al-Qaeda penetrating North West of Nigeria — US

The United States has disclosed that the Al-Qaeda insurgent group has started to penetrate the North West of Nigeria.

The Commander of US Special Operations Command Africa, Major General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, who disclosed this during a briefing, said the group is also expanding to other parts of West Africa.

Anderson, who spoke at a news conference coordinated by the United States Embassy in Nigeria, said the US will continue to partner with Nigeria in sharing intelligence.

He said: We have engaged with Nigeria and continue to engage with them in intel sharing and in understanding what these violent extremists are doing.

“And that has been absolutely critical to their engagements up in Borno State and into an emerging area of North West 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.

He said: “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.”