By Associated Press
The Trump administration is greenlighting a nearly $600 million
sale of high-tech attack planes to Nigeria, officials said Thursday. The goal
is to shore up the West African nation’s ability to fight Boko Haram and other
extremists, despite U.S. concerns about human rights abuses by Nigerian
security forces.
The
sale will let Nigeria buy up to 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft from
Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corp., according to officials who were briefed on
the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized
to discuss it publicly. The aircraft come with sophisticated targeting
equipment that the U.S says will help Nigeria fight terrorism, trafficking,
insurgency and illicit trade.
In his
final days in office, former President Barack Obama put the planned sale on
hold after a Nigerian fighter jet repeatedly bombed a camp near the Cameroon
border housing civilians who had fled Boko Haram. Local officials have said
more than 230 people were killed, in an incident that brought new attention to
alleged abuses by Nigeria’s forces.
A few
weeks later, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump told Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari that he supported the sale. Trump told the Nigerian leader in
their first phone call that it would increase American exports and help Nigeria
fight terrorists, according to officials.
The
move is Trump’s latest to arm countries despite questionable rights records in
some cases. On his first trip abroad as president, Trump announced a $110
billion sale of military equipment to Saudi Arabia, including precision-guided
munitions that Obama had cut off over concerns about high rates of civilian
casualties in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is at war with Iranian-backed Shiite rebels
in Yemen.
Despite
approving the sale to Nigeria, the U.S. is keeping up the pressure on Buhari’s
government to improve its forces’ human rights practices and ensure
accountability for violators, a U.S. official said. The aim of the sale is to
help Nigeria and its neighbors strengthen their ability to fight Boko Haram and
an Islamic State group affiliate in West Africa. Other countries in the region
fighting similar threats already have the Super Tucano, the official noted.
The
State Department notified Congress late Wednesday of its plans to approve the
sale. That triggered a 30-day review period in which lawmakers can try to block
the sale. While several Democrats in particular have raised concerns, Congress
is unlikely to stop the administration from proceeding.
John
Campbell, a Nigeria scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, said concerns
have receded somewhat as Nigeria has taken steps to address shortcomings,
including granting the International Committee of the Red Cross access to some
Nigerian detention facilities.
“There
are signs of some progress,” Campbell said. Still, he said Nigeria had a “long
way to go.”
If the
sale goes forward, the U.S. will have to send employees or contractors to
Nigeria to provide logistical support and train teams on how to use the
aircraft. They also would provide guidance on international laws for protecting
civilians, officials said.
The
Nigerian air force has been accused of bombing civilian targets several times
in recent years. The State Department said in report last year that the
Nigerian government has taken “few steps to investigate or prosecute officials
who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the
government, and impunity remained widespread at all levels of government.”
Amnesty
International also has accused Nigeria’s military of war crimes and crimes
against humanity in the extrajudicial killings of an estimated 8,000 Boko Haram
suspects. Buhari promised to investigate the alleged abuses after he won office
in March 2015. No soldier has since been prosecuted.
Nigeria
is Africa’s largest consumer market, with 170 million people, and the
continent’s second-largest oil producer. It is strategically located on the
edge of the Sahel, the largely lawless semi-desert region bridging north and
sub-Saharan Africa where experts warn of Islamic extremists expanding their
reach. More than 20,000 have been killed and about 3 million displaced in Boko
Haram’s insurgency since 2009, in which the extremist group has sought to
enforce strict Islamic rule.