Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has deployed an army battalion to Kaiama district in central Kwara state after suspected jihadist fighters killed at least 170 people on Tuesday night, hours after the United States said it had a small number of troops in the country to support counterterrorism efforts.
Olúfémi Táíwò, professor of Africana studies at Cornell University, says Nigeria was right to accept U.S. assistance, despite President Trump’s characterization of the violence as a “mass slaughter” of Christians.
Táíwò says: “President Bọla Tinubu’s government should be commended for accepting the offer of help from the American government, even if the latter is based on an incorrect reading of the causes and direction of the violence inflicted by various terrorist groups on Nigerians in the north and central regions of Nigeria.
“It should be noted that Nigerian personnel continue to do the bulk of the fighting. We should judge this cooperation by how it accelerates the decimation of the criminal and, especially, jihadist groups laying siege on the Nigerian population.”
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