At the instance of the Nigerian government, the United States of America (USA) has discontinued its training of a Nigerian Army battalion.
The first two phases of training were conducted between April and August 2014, and had provided previously untrained civilian personnel with basic soldiering skills.
Based on mutual assessment of the Nigerian Army and U.S. trainers, a third iteration of training was agreed upon with the intent of developing the battalion into a unit with advanced infantry skills.
A statement from the Public Affairs Section, United States, Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria, Abuja, made available to journalists read: “We regret premature termination of this training, as it was to be the first in a larger planned project that would have trained additional units with the goal of helping the Nigerian Army build capacity to counter Boko Haram.
The U.S. government will continue other aspects of the extensive bilateral security relationship, as well as all other assistance programmes.”
