BOKO HARAM: America cancels training of Nigerian soldiers

         

Credit: Olufamous.com

Is this the right time for our government to be fighting America? Now that crude oil price is falling?

The United States has announced the cancellation of the training of a battalion of the Nigeria Army, at the request of the Federal Government. It said that the first two phases of the training were conducted between April and August, 2014, noting that it had provided untrained civilian with basic skills.

A statement from the Information Office of the US Embassy, on Monday, regretted what it described as the premature termination of the exercise programme, which it said would have trained the Nigerian soldiers to build their capacity to counter the Boko Haram terrorists.

The statement from the US reads:

“At the request of the Nigerian government, the United States will discontinue its training of a Nigerian Army battalion. The first two phases of training were conducted between April and August 2014, and had provided previously untrained civilian personnel with basic soldiering skills.

  

“Based on mutual assessment of the Nigerian Army and U.S. trainers, a third iteration of training was agreed upon with the intent of developing the battalion into a unit with advanced infantry skills.

“We regret the premature termination of this training, as it was to be the first in a larger planned project that would have trained additional units with the goal of helping the Nigerian Army build capacity to counter Boko Haram.”