The Trump administration will move forward with the sale of high-tech
aircraft to Nigeria for its campaign against Boko Haram Islamic
extremists despite concerns over abuses committed by the African
nation’s security forces, according to US officials.
Congress is
expected to receive formal notification within weeks, setting in motion a
deal with Nigeria that the Obama administration had planned to approve
at the very end of Barack Obama’s presidency.
The arrangement will
call for Nigeria to purchase up to 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano
aircraft with sophisticated targeting gear for nearly $600 million, one
of the officials said.
The officials were not authorized to
discuss the terms of the sale publicly and requested anonymity to speak
about internal diplomatic conversations.
Though President Donald
Trump has made clear his intention to approve the sale of the aircraft,
the National Security Council is still working on the issue.
Military sales to several other countries are also expected to be approved but are caught up in an ongoing White House review.
Nigeria has been trying to buy the aircraft since 2015.
The Nigerian air force has been accused of bombing civilian targets at least three times in recent years.
In
the worst incident, a fighter jet on January 17 repeatedly bombed a
camp at Rann, near the border with Cameroon, where civilians had fled
from Boko Haram.
Between 100 and 236 civilians and aid workers were killed, according to official and community leaders’ counts.
That
bombing occurred on the same day the Obama administration intended to
officially notify Congress the sale would go forward. Instead, it was
abruptly put on hold, according to an individual who worked on the issue
during Obama’s presidency. Days later, Trump was inaugurated.
Senator
Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairperson of the Foreign Relations
Committee, said this past week that he supported the A-29 deal to
Nigeria as well as the sale of US-made fighter jets to Bahrain that had
been stripped of human rights caveats imposed by the Obama
administration.
Under Obama, the US said Bahrain failed to make
promised political and human rights reforms after its Sunni-ruled
government crushed Arab Spring protests five years ago.
“We need to deal with human rights issues, but not on weapons sales,” Corker said.
The
State Department said in a 2016 report 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 has accused Nigeria’s military of war crimes and crimes
against humanity in the extrajudicial killings of an estimated 8 000
Boko Haram suspects.
President Muhammadu Buhari promised to
investigate the alleged abuses after he won office in March 2015, but no
soldier has been prosecuted and thousands of people remain in illegal
military detention. Nigeria’s military has denied the allegations.
The
A-29 sale would improve the US relationship with Nigeria, Africa’s
largest consumer market of 170 million people, the continent’s biggest
economy and its second-largest oil producer.
Nigeria also is
strategically located on the edge of the Sahel, the largely lawless
semi-desert region bridging north and sub-Saharan Africa where experts
warn Islamic extremists like the Nigeria-based Boko Haram may expand
their reach.
The aircraft deal also would satisfy Trump’s
priorities to support nations fighting Islamic uprisings, boost US
manufacturing and create high-wage jobs at home.
The A-29 aircraft, which allow pilots to pinpoint targets at night, are assembled in Jacksonville, Florida.
“It’s
hard to argue that any country in Africa is more important than Nigeria
for the geopolitical and other strategic interests of the US,” said J.
Peter Pham, vice president of the Atlantic Council in Washington and
head of its Africa Center.
Once Congress is officially notified of
the sale, lawmakers who want to derail it have 30 days to pass
veto-proof legislation. That’s a high hurdle given Corker’s support.
Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., chairperson of the Armed Services
Committee, also said he backs the sale.
“We’ve really got to try to do what we can to contain them,” McCain said of Boko Haram.
In
Trump’s first phone call with Buhari in February, he “assured the
Nigerian president of US readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria
in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism,” according to Buhari’s
office.
A February 15 White House statement that provided a
summary of the call said “President Trump expressed support for the sale
of aircraft from the United States to support Nigeria’s fight against
Boko Haram.”
Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on
the Foreign Relations Committee, said in mid-February he was “leery” of
the sale because of the Nigerian military’s impunity. Cardin said this
week he’s not trying to block the deal.
“Ultimately we hope that
the sale goes forward,” he said. “But there is progress that needs to be
made in protecting the civilian population.”
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