US begins surveillance in Sambisa forest, Kogi, Kwara after Sokoto hit

By Samuel Ogunsona

The United States has resumed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations in Nigeria’s northeast region and the Middle Belt.

This may be in preparation for another round of strikes on terrorist hideouts across Nigeria.

Sources told Irohinoodua that the US intelligence in collaboration with Nigeria focuses on the Sambisa forest and other terrorists’ fortress after conducting airstrikes against ISIS fighters in Sokoto State on Thursday.

According to Brant Philip, a terrorism tracker, the US mission targets the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), an ISIS affiliate operating mainly in Nigeria’s northeast and Lake Chad basin.

Philip shared flight-tracking data showing a US Gulfstream V aircraft, often modified for ISR missions, flying over Borno State.

The aircraft, linked to Tenax Aerospace, a US special mission aircraft provider, has reportedly flown over Nigeria almost daily since November 24, when the US began its ongoing ISR missions in the country.

The surveillance flights serve multiple purposes, including tracking an American pilot kidnapped in neighboring Niger Republic and gathering intelligence on militant groups in Nigeria.

This renewed US engagement comes after National Security Adviser Mallam Nuhu Ribadu met with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in Washington, amid growing tension over President Donald Trump’s threats of military intervention in Nigeria.

Hegseth said the US Department of Defence would work “aggressively” with Nigeria to end the “persecution of Christians by jihadist terrorists.”