The United States is preparing to deploy about 200 troops to Nigeria in a significant expansion of its support for the country’s fight against Islamist militant groups, according to a senior U.S. official.

The contingent will focus on training, advising and assisting Nigerian forces battling Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, two factions whose insurgency has destabilized large swathes of the country’s north and spilled across borders into Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

The move follows recent U.S. airstrikes on targets Washington identified as Islamic State-linked positions in the wider region, underscoring a renewed American willingness to use both air power and on-the-ground expertise to shape counterterrorism efforts in West Africa.

U.S. military officials previously acknowledged that a small American team was already operating in Nigeria, but declined to specify its size or exact role. The new deployment will reinforce that presence, formalizing what had been a relatively low-profile mission and signaling deeper security cooperation between Washington and Abuja.

According to U.S. officials, the troops will not engage in direct combat. Instead, they will provide specialized training in areas such as intelligence gathering, battlefield medicine, logistics, and the use of surveillance technology, aiming to improve the Nigerian military’s ability to track, disrupt and dismantle militant networks.

The deployment also comes amid diplomatic friction. U.S. lawmakers and advocacy groups have accused Nigerian authorities of failing to adequately protect Christian communities in the northwest, where armed groups have carried out mass kidnappings, village raids and attacks on churches. American officials have privately pressed Abuja to do more to safeguard civilians and investigate abuses.

Nigerian officials strongly reject claims of religious bias, insisting that security operations target criminal and extremist groups threatening both Christians and Muslims. They argue that militants exploit local grievances, poverty and weak governance, rather than purely sectarian motives, to recruit and expand.

For Nigeria, a nation of more than 230 million people split broadly between a largely Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, the stakes are high. Boko Haram and ISWAP have waged a brutal campaign for years, attacking military convoys, bombing markets and displacing millions. The northwest and northeast remain epicenters of violence despite repeated offensives by government forces.

Analysts say the arrival of additional U.S. troops could bolster Nigeria’s capabilities, but warn that military assistance alone will not end the insurgency without parallel efforts to address corruption, human rights concerns and the deep socioeconomic inequalities that fuel recruitment into armed groups.