The United States has withdrawn most of the forces it deployed for a recent operation against Islamic State militants in Nigeria and is now providing intelligence support at Abuja\u2019s request, the head of U.S. Africa Command said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In May, U.S. and Nigerian forces conducted military operations in northeastern Nigeria that killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the second-in-command of ISIS globally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That followed a U.S. strike on Christmas Day against the militants ordered by President Donald Trump, who said they had been targeting Christians in the African country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Addressing a conference of African defense chiefs in Angola on Thursday, AFRICOM Commander Gen. Dagvin Anderson described May\u2019s joint U.S.-Nigerian as a model for future security cooperation in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have withdrawn much of our forces that were just there for that operation, but are continuing the partnership that Nigeria has asked for to help continue with the intelligence sharing,\u201d Anderson told journalists during a U.S. State Department-hosted briefing after the conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anderson said the operation, in Nigeria\u2019s Lake Chad Basin region, demonstrated Washington\u2019s approach of providing specialized capabilities while allowing African partners to lead security operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said cooperation with Nigeria had helped significantly degrade Islamic State\u2019s leadership, adding that the impact had extended beyond West Africa because of the militant group\u2019s international network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The operation disrupted not only local commanders but also broader Islamic State communications and operations, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNigeria has been very active since that operation in May,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cThey continue to prosecute targets themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that Nigerian military pressure, combined with efforts to publicize the operation, had encouraged additional defections and surrenders among ISIS fighters in northeastern Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The three-day conference in Angola\u2019s capital, Luanda, was attended by military leaders from 35 African countries, alongside representatives from the U.S. and Brazil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AFRICOM Commander Gen. Dagvin Anderson described May\u2019s joint U.S.-Nigerian as a model for future security cooperation in Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":110738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,11,47,36,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2810],"class_list":["post-48490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-mideast-africa","category-newsletters","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"SPRWI26YUREPRIN3MQJBKN7P6Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2026\/07\/03\/us-withdrew-forces-from-nigeria-after-operation-against-isis-africom-chief-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n