Abuja - The United States is prepared to send
military trainers to Nigeria to help new
President Muhammadu Buhari's armed forces
improve their intelligence gathering and
logistics, a senior State Department official said
on Friday.
Strains between U.S. military advisers and the
Nigerian army over human rights abuses and
corruption under Buhari's predecessor Goodluck
Jonathan undermined cooperation in efforts to
counter the six-year-old Boko Haram
insurgency.
The State Department official said Buhari and
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry would
discuss future security assistance and expanded
economic ties in a meeting on the sidelines of
the new president's inauguration on Friday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity
ahead of Kerry's visit to Abuja, said initial talks
with Buhari indicated he wanted a "close
relationship" with the United States.
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"We have every indication that we'll be able to
start a new chapter. We continue to have
advisers there ... what I'm talking about would
be new advisers in areas where we would
expand."
Nigerian security forces have scored some
successes against Boko Haram this year. The
jihadists held an area of northeast Nigeria
roughly the size of Belgium at the start of 2015
but have since been beaten back by counter-
attacking government forces backed by those of
neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
The State Department official said Washington
was willing to help train Nigeria's security
forces in intelligence and logistics as well as
military justice.
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"We want to make sure and prioritize based on
what President-elect Buhari and his top military
team needs," the official said, acknowledging
that training of a newly created army battalion
last year "ran into some difficulties.
"(But) we think we can pretty quickly get back
on track."
Boko Haram launched its insurgency in 2009,
attacking towns and villages and killing
thousands of people in pursuit of a state
adhering to strict sharia law. The militants'
abduction of 200 schoolgirls in April 2014
provoked outrage across the world.
The State Department official said that during
his discussions with Buhari, Kerry would also
express U.S. interest in more economic
cooperation with Nigeria, Africa's biggest energy
producer and most populous country.
American firms were especially interested in
investing in Nigeria's oil and gas sector and in
manufacturing.
