U.S. surveillance flights over Nigeria have ramped up since late November, signaling a sharp uptick in security cooperation as Washington presses Abuja to curb mounting violence, including attacks on Christian communities. Flight-tracking data and current and former U.S. officials confirm contractor-operated missions flying near daily from Accra, Ghana, across Nigerian airspace and back.
It was not immediately clear what specific intelligence the aircraft are collecting. A current U.S. official confirmed the flights but declined details, citing diplomatic sensitivities. Another administration official said Washington is working with Nigeria to “address religious violence, anti-Christian attacks, and the destabilizing spread of terrorism.”
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The activity follows President Donald Trump’s November warnings of potential U.S. military action if Nigeria fails to protect Christians and comes months after a U.S. pilot working for a missionary agency was kidnapped in neighboring Niger. A former U.S. official said assets moved to Ghana in November are supporting missions to locate the abducted pilot and to gather intelligence on militant groups in Nigeria, including Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province.
Flight data identifies the operator as Mississippi-based Tenax Aerospace, which provides special-mission aircraft to U.S. government customers. The company did not respond to a request for comment. The platform in use is a Gulfstream V, a long-range business jet commonly modified for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
The aircraft was tracked at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on Nov. 7 and flew to Ghana on Nov. 24, days after a high-level U.S.-Nigeria security meeting, the data shows. Since then, it has flown near-daily sorties over Nigeria. The missions appear to be staged out of Accra, a known logistics hub for U.S. operations in West Africa, said Liam Karr, Africa team lead at the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project. “In recent weeks we’ve seen a resumption of intelligence and surveillance flights in Nigeria,” he said, calling the activity an early sign Washington is rebuilding capacity after Niger ordered U.S. forces to leave a sprawling desert air base and pivoted to Russia for security assistance last year.
A Nigerian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington agreed to deploy air assets to help gather intelligence during a Nov. 20 meeting between Nigerian National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Nigeria’s military and Ghana’s deputy defense minister did not respond to requests for comment. The Pentagon said it held productive meetings with Nigeria after Trump’s message but declined to discuss intelligence matters.
The stepped-up flights come amid a widening security emergency in Africa’s most populous nation. President Bola Tinubu last month declared a national security emergency, ordering the army and police to begin mass recruitment after a surge of armed attacks and kidnappings across multiple states, including the abduction of more than 300 schoolchildren in the north.
Nigeria’s government says armed groups target both Muslims and Christians, and that claims of systematic anti-Christian persecution oversimplify a complex conflict landscape and overlook efforts to safeguard religious freedom in a country split roughly between a Muslim-majority north and Christian-majority south. Still, officials have agreed to tighter coordination with the United States to counter militants and improve intelligence-sharing.
Trump in October returned Nigeria to a U.S. list of countries of particular concern for religious freedom violations, and this week added Nigeria to a travel ban list imposing partial entry restrictions. He has also directed the Pentagon to be ready for possible “fast” military action if Nigeria fails to curb killings of Christians, according to officials.
U.S. engagement is also broadening institutionally: Washington and Abuja have set up a joint task force to coordinate on security, according to Republican Rep. Riley Moore, who recently visited Nigeria. For now, the most visible sign of that cooperation is overhead—daily surveillance flights tracing disciplined loops over a country on edge.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
