Vol 67 No 9 |
- BURKINA FASO
MOSCOW'S SECURITY REPUTATION TAKES A HIT When Burkina Faso's Célestin Simporé minister of war – a changed title identical to that of his hawkish US counterpart Pete Hegseth – presented plans for a new 100 000-strong military reserve on 24 April he could not have known that the next morning he would wake to news of a multi-pronged offensive by jihadists and Tuareg separatists in neighbouring Mali...
Until now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had managed to stave off the worst threats from Washington by a combination of pushing back diplomatically against the most egregious claims and dispatching National Security Advisor Nuhu Ribadu to negotiate a new security cooperation pact with Secretary for Defense (aka War) Pete Hegseth and pushing through sales worth US$346 million of US bombs and rockets for Nigeria's military...
Tinubu dispatched his National Security Advisor Nuhu Ribadu to negotiate new military aid and arms-supply agreements with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (AC Vol 67 No 1 Pentagon strikes on Sokoto will speed sale of $345 million of US rockets and missiles to Abuja & Vol 67 No 2 Tinubu and Biafra lobbyists join war for Trump's ear over Christian genocide claims)...
20 November: Nuhu Ribadu and Nigerian military intelligence officers meet US Secretary for Defense Peter Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine in Washington...
Publicly he pushed back against Trump's claims of a Christian genocide; more discreetly he sent his national security advisor Nuhu Ribadu with military intelligence officers to meet US Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth in Washington DC...
Ribadu and senior Nigerian military intelligence officers met US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine on 20 November...
Such operations are much easier since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unpicked rules requiring White House approval for strikes outside war zones...
His National Security Advisor and close ally Nuhu Ribadu subsequently flew to Washington to meet Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth along with other Intelligence and Congressional officials to establish a US-Nigeria Joint Working Group on national security...
Targeting high-value Al Shabaab targets was also made easier by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signing a directive easing the rules of engagement for drones on 28 February...