The United States deployed roughly 200 military personnel to Nigeria in February 2026 to support Nigerian forces in intelligence-sharing, training, and counterterrorism operations against Islamist militants, particularly ISIS and Boko Haram-linked factions in the Lake Chad Basin.
The deployment followed a Christmas Day airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump against militants, including ISIS, that had been targeting Christians in the country, part of a broader push after Trump redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for Christian persecution.
Now, the Pentagon is preparing to pull most of those troops out. According to a New York Times report cited widely across Nigerian media, the larger contingent is expected to leave by late September 2026, though small teams of trainers and intelligence analysts will remain.
American officials point to a single operation as the turning point. In May 2026, a joint U.S.-Nigerian raid in Borno State killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, identified by U.S. officials as ISIS’s second-in-command globally.