US is ready to help Nigeria identify Boko Haram sponsors – US Ambassador says

The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Leonard, said her country is prepared to partner with Nigeria to identify the sponsors of Boko Haram and extremism in the country.

Speaking during a media briefing in Abuja on Monday, August 30, she said partnering Nigeria to identify sponsors of Boko Haram was something the U.S. was very eager to do.

She added that she had had at least three conversations in the last two months on this subject, but said she would not go into details.

She said: “That is something we are very eager to partner Nigeria on. I have had at least three conversations in the last two months on this subject. I won’t like to go into details.

“I hear people making the analogy with Afghanistan a lot, it does not match up. When you listen to what President Biden said on how troops went to Afghanistan in the first place, it was because they were in a horrible tragedy, over 3,000 Americans were killed.

“That is a different construct. The sovereign nations who have had strong bilateral relations. I don’t actually think the two match up.”

She said that the U.S. had remained committed to support Nigeria fight insecurity.

Leonard added that the U.S. government was also committed to supporting democracy and economic programmes of the government through the embassy.