The United States has been carrying out intelligence and surveillance flights over parts of Nigeria since late November, according to flight tracking data and US officials quoted by Reuters.
The report said the purpose of the flights could not be independently confirmed, but they come weeks after US President Donald Trump threatened military intervention over what he described as Nigeria’s failure to stop violence against Christian communities.
Reuters noted that the surveillance operations also followed the kidnapping of a US pilot working for a missionary organisation in neighbouring Niger earlier this year.
Flight tracking data for December showed that the aircraft involved usually takes off from Ghana, flies over Nigeria, and returns to Accra.
The operator was identified as Mississippi-based Tenax Aerospace, a company that provides special mission aircraft and works closely with the US military. The firm did not respond to requests for comment.
Africa team lead at the Critical Threats Project of the American Enterprise Institute, Liam Karr, who analysed the data, said the flights appeared to be running out of Accra, which he described as “a known hub for the U.S. military’s logistics network in Africa.”
Karr said the operations suggested Washington was rebuilding its intelligence capacity in the region after Niger last year ordered US troops to leave a key desert air base and instead turned to Russia for security support.
“In recent weeks, we’ve seen a resumption of intelligence and surveillance flights in Nigeria,” he told Reuters.
A former US official said the aircraft was among several assets moved to Ghana by the Trump administration in November.
The official added that the missions included tracking the kidnapped US pilot and gathering intelligence on militant groups in Nigeria, including Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province.
A current US official confirmed the flights over Nigeria but declined to give details, citing diplomatic sensitivity.
Another US administration official said Washington was continuing to work with Nigeria to “address religious violence, anti-Christian attacks, and the destabilising spread of terrorism.”
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, the Pentagon said the US held “productive meetings” with Nigeria following Trump’s comments but declined to discuss intelligence activities.
Nigeria’s military spokesperson and Ghana’s deputy defence minister did not respond to requests for comment.
Nigeria has repeatedly maintained that armed groups attack both Muslims and Christians, insisting that claims of targeted Christian persecution oversimplify a complex security situation.
A Nigerian security source told Reuters that during a November 20 meeting between National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, the US agreed to deploy air assets for intelligence gathering.
Flight data also showed the Tenax Aerospace aircraft at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida on November 7. The base hosts the headquarters of the US Special Operations Command.
The aircraft later flew to Ghana on November 24, days after the high-level security talks, and has since flown over Nigeria almost daily.
The aircraft is a Gulfstream V, a long-range business jet commonly adapted for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
The development comes amid worsening insecurity in Nigeria.
Last month, President Bola Tinubu declared a security emergency and ordered mass recruitment into the army and police following deadly attacks, kidnappings and the abduction of more than 300 schoolchildren in northern states.
