The United States has revealed that Al-Qaeda and ISIS are planning to penetrate Southern Nigeria.
Also, the US said Al-Qaeda has commenced penetrating the north-western part of Nigeria.
During a media briefing viewed by TheCable, Dagvin Anderson, Commander of the US special operations command, Africa, disclosed that Al-Qaeda is also expanding its tentacles to other West African countries.
Anderson said the United States would continue to work with Nigeria in sharing intelligence.
He said: “We have engaged with Nigeria and continue to engage with them in intel sharing and in understanding what these violent extremists are doing.
“And that has been absolutely critical to their engagements up in the Borno state and into an emerging area of northwest Nigeria that we’re seeing al-Qaeda starting to make some inroads in.
“So, this intelligence sharing is absolutely vital and we stay fully engaged with the government of Nigeria to provide them with an understanding of what these terrorists are doing, what Boko Haram is doing, what ISIS-West Africa is doing, and how ISIS and al-Qaeda are looking to expand further south into the littoral areas.”
Anderson added that the government must take the lead before international efforts can yield desired results in the fight against terrorism in Nigeria.
He said: “When it comes to Nigeria in general, Nigeria, obviously, is a critical nation to West Africa. It is a critical nation and we realise that Nigeria is a lynchpin.”
