The U.S. administration is seeking to approve a sale of as many as 12 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to Nigeria to aid its battle against the extremist group Boko Haram, U.S. officials say, in a vote of confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari's drive to reform the country's corruption-tainted military.

Washington also is dedicating more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to the campaign against the Islamist militants in the region and plans to provide additional training to Nigerian infantry forces, the officials told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's plans.

The possible sale -- which the officials said was favored within the U.S. administration but is subject to review by Congress -- underscores the deepening U.S. involvement in helping governments in north and west Africa fight extremist groups.

U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Michael Franken, a deputy commander of the Pentagon's Africa Command, told a Washington forum last week that there now are 6,200 U.S. troops - most of them Special Operations Forces - operating from 26 locations on the continent.

The widening U.S. military cooperation is a political victory for Buhari, who took office last year pledging to crack down on the rampant corruption that has undermined the armed forces in Africa's most populous country.

"The Buhari administration I think has really reenergized the bilateral relationship in a fundamental way," one U.S. official said.

The previous Nigerian government of Goodluck Jonathan had scorned the United States for blocking arms sales partly because of human rights concerns. It also criticized Washington for failing to speed the sharing of intelligence.

The souring relations hit a low at the end of 2014 when U.S. military training of Nigerian forces was abruptly halted.

That is changing under Buhari, whose crackdown on corruption has led to a raft of charges against top national security officials in the previous government.

"Buhari made clear from the get-go that his number one priority was reforming the military to defeat Boko Haram ... And he sees us as part of that solution," a second U.S. official said.
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› Fact box: The A-29 Super Tucano aircraft at a glance

Still, serious human rights abuses committed by security forces, which include police, increased in 2015, according to the U.S. State Department's annual human rights report.

Many of the funds alleged to have been misused and siphoned off by corrupt Nigerian officials under Jonathan's government were earmarked for the fight against Boko Haram, which has killed thousands in northeast Nigeria and neighboring countries in the last seven years. Last year, the group pledged loyalty to Islamic State.

"No wonder they weren't doing well with respect to Boko Haram. (They) didn’t have the ammunition," the first official said.

The accused officials include Nigeria's former chief of defense staff, who last month pleaded not guilty to using money allocated for Nigeria's air force to buy a mansion and a commercial plot of land and build a shopping mall.

ARMED AIRCRAFT

Congress has not yet been formally notified of the possible U.S. approval of the sale of Embraer's A29 Super Tucano turboprop aircraft to Nigeria.

The Tucanos can be used for training, surveillance or attack. They can be armed with two wing-mounted machine guns and can carry up to 1,550 Kg (3,417 pounds) of weapons. (See Factbox

One production line for the Super Tucano is in Florida, where it is built with U.S. firm Sierra Nevada Corp. The aircraft that would be sold to Nigeria come with a "very basic armed configuration," one of the U.S. officials said.

The sale could offer Nigeria a more maneuverable aircraft that can stay aloft for extended periods to target Boko Haram formations. Officials did not disclose the cost of the planes to be sold to Nigeria.

However, a contract for 20 similar aircraft sold to Afghanistan was valued at about $428 million at the time it was announced in 2013.

J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council think tank, said any sale of Super Tucano aircraft would demonstrate improving ties, but cautioned that their ability to counter Boko Haram could be limited.

"When you're fighting a group that's no longer holding towns and villages, that's no longer massing forces in a conventional way, the aircraft – attack aircraft – have a much more limited role in that kind of fight," Pham said.

African armies routed the militant group from much of its self-proclaimed caliphate in northeastern Nigeria last year.

Its fighters have since regrouped and intensified their attacks in the Lake Chad Basin, threatening regional security, despite the creation of a 9,000-strong African multinational force to counter it.

The U.S. military expects to train a second Nigerian infantry battalion once the current group completes its training later this year, the first official said.

The officials did not specify what type of additional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets would be provided to bolster the regional fight against Boko Haram.

They acknowledge that they have a tough task combating the group, which is sending women and children strapped with explosives to blow up civilian targets such as marketplaces.

"Boko Haram has morphed back in to what it had earlier been, not a holder of large amounts of territory, but rather a generator of asymmetric attacks," the second official said.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay. Editing by John Walcott and Stuart Grudgings)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nigeria-arms-idUSKCN0XX09M

GOD BLESS BUHARI

nonsense ! why now even when the former vice President publicly declared out intentions to acquire this platform . I hate this double standards from the Americans.

After slandering the USA and her citizens on social media, you still run to us for a mere turbo aircraft..
Why not go to your favorite China if they are so good ? Deluded lots.

Our profile keeps soaring on the international scene. God bless PMB for us, for enabling him to gradually repair our damaged international status and restoring our national pride.

Sons of haters can keep spreading their hate, while the chief hater keeps languishing in a watery-beans eating cell.

Nigeria is waxing stronger and their fraud of a dream keeps becoming a lost cause on a daily basis.

CSTR2:
After slandering the USA and her citizens on social media, you still run to us for a mere turbo aircraft..
Why not go to your favorite China if they are so good ? Deluded lots.

who be dis one gerrarahere mehn.

mars123:
who be dis one gerrarahere mehn.

no I won't.
According to simpletons like you, the US =IMF =WORLD BANK.=EMEMY.
what do you want our weapons for?

Wailers go and die!

Don't be surprise those attack helicopter is for Naija Delta militants

CSTR2:
no I won't.
According to simpletons like you, the US =IMF =WORLD BANK.=EMEMY.
what do you want our weapons for?

even enemies do business together. when Americans didn't sell weapons to us we didn't die. we still dey forge ahead bros.

Nigerdeltaboi:
nonsense ! why now even when the former vice President publicly declared out intentions to acquire this platform . I hate this double standards from the Americans.

We are getting the most basic version, if eventually this deal goes through. A stripped down, Monkey model. The Americans are back with their hypocritical double standards.

mars123:
even enemies do business together. when Americans didn't sell weapons to us we didn't die. we still dey forge ahead bros.

.no, it means you have zero pride. Just a loud mouth.
Enemies don't buy weapons from each other.
You don't expect the US to entrust her military personnel to a Chinese jet.

frankly speaking i dont see any reason for that now that the BOKO HARAM has change the mode of their reparation from sambisa and it clusters to SS, SW,SE changed there manes to fulani headsmen


we cant get the effect of that aircraft

Henry240:


We are getting the most basic version, if eventually this deal goes through. A stripped down, Monkey model. The Americans are back with their hypocritical double standards.

I swear hypocrisy at its peak.

Henry240:


We are getting the most basic version, if eventually this deal goes through. A stripped down, Monkey model. The Americans are back with their hypocritical double standards.

hoW come! Jonathan is not the commander in chief again na, the above can/had/will only happen if/when he was in charge.!

"........in a vote of confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari's drive to reform the country's corruption-tainted military."

Amazing transaction to be signed off by US & Nigeria Government

We need similar device to fight militants in creeks and cattle rustlers

I am sure the first place they'll carry out the test if it's performing well will be



The creeks



God punish Devil


SEE BAD BELLE PEOPLE NOTHING BUHARI ACHIEVES IS GOOD FOR THEM

Bondesniger:
frankly speaking i dont see any reason for that now that now

Nigerdeltaboi:
I swear hypocrisy at its peak.

Henry240:

A stripped down, Monkey model.

**********************

CSTR2:

Enemies don't buy weapons from each other.

When did your thinking faculty leak it's contents ?

Jonathan's administration ended relations with US ARMY/US Marine , that is still fresh in our memory !!


Whole of Nigerians never said US was an enemy and never hated the US , a few wailers loyal to Jonathan were (5% people)

Nigeria Trading and wanting Yuan for international trade as opposed to US Dollar doesn't make US an enemy ,

I thought you used to be reasonable

This is good

America is part of the reason why the menace of Boko Haram has managed to get to this monumental extent. When they were just beginning and Good luck Jonathan asked for US help in dealing with them before they got out of hand, US refused to help, claiming it was just a domestic issue and refused to recognise the Boko idiots as terrorists. Now that we are winning the war on our own, they want to share in the credit by selling us some archaic aircrafts they know no other country would buy.

youngeagle:
Don't be surprise those attack helicopter is for Naija Delta militants

Most likely. This time, Buhari will lose

RIP boko boys

Wailing mourners be like

Okkk but make dem no come use am dey kill both innocent ppl oooo.

APC-SCAM

Ok.... That will be reasonable

lets just hope it doesnt end up in the wrong hands

Good If Itz Real..!

CSTR2:
After slandering the USA and her citizens on social media, you still run to us for a mere turbo aircraft..
Why not go to your favorite China if they are so good ? Deluded lots.

who ever u are you are saying we as an American, dem no you? And u have forgotten America will not do business if they are not benefiting