The United States has warned the Federal Government that international terrorist groups, Al-Qaeda and ISIS are planning to penetrate Southern Nigeria.
In a media briefing, Commander of US special operations (Africa), Dagvin Anderson disclosed that Al-Qaeda is expanding its frontiers to other parts of West Africa.
While warning that the dreaded groups are looking to make an incursion into Southern Nigeria, Anderson confirmed that Al-Qaeda has already penetrated the North-western part of the country.
According to Tribune, the commander, however, promised that the US would continue to partner with Nigeria in intelligence sharing.
“We have engaged with Nigeria and continue to engage with them in intel sharing and in understanding what these violent extremists are doing,” he said.
“And that has been absolutely critical to their engagements up in the Borno state and into an emerging area of northwest Nigeria that we’re seeing al-Qaeda 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 with an understanding of what these terrorists are doing, what Boko Haram is doing, what ISIS-West Africa is doing, and how ISIS and al-Qaeda are looking to expand further south into the littoral areas,” he stated.
Anderson regretted that despite successes recorded in previous years, there has been a setback, adding: “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.”
He opined that for international efforts to yield desired results in the fight against terrorism in Nigeria, the government must take the lead.
“When it comes to Nigeria in general, Nigeria, obviously, is a critical nation to West Africa. It is a critical nation and we realise that Nigeria is a lynchpin,” he said.
