The United States Government, on Wednesday, said that terrorists’ groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS are broadly spreading in Nigeria and West Africa, despite effort to eliminate them.
The Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S Bureau of African Affairs, Michael Gonzales, disclosed this on Wednesday during a press briefing on West Africa Joint Operations (WAJO).
He added that the US government was willing to assist all of its West African partners in quelling the spread of terrorism.
“ISIS and Al Qaeda I would argue are quite broadly spread in Nigeria and West Africa.
“Insecurity in West Africa directly poses a risk to U.S. interests. It’s in our interest to help partner nations to learn how to detect and deter threats,” he stated as captured in a tweet by the U.S. Africa Media Hub.
Earlier, the U.S. had in a 2020 Human Rights Report on Nigeria, confirmed that the West Africa version of ISIS in collaboration with Boko Haram, had displaced about 2,300,000 Nigerians.
It stressed that the level of internal conflict perpetuated by these terrorists were overwhelming.
“The insurgency in the Northeast by the militant terrorist groups Boko Haram and the ISIS-WA continued. The groups conducted numerous attacks on government and civilian targets, resulting in thousands of deaths and injuries, widespread destruction of property, the internal displacement of more than two million persons, and external displacement of approximately 300,000 Nigerian refugees as of September 30,” the reported stated in part.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari had expressed faith in the new Service Chiefs’ ability to keep the nation secure.
“I am convinced that the new resolve within the security personnel to make sure that insecurity in the country becomes history, will come to pass,” he tweeted on April 2.
