The Nigerian government has ended a US effort to train a battalion of its troops to fight Boko Haram, an Islamist terrorist group that is responsible for abducting hundreds of schoolgirls earlier this year, according to the State Department.
“We regret 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,” State Department spokesman Rodney Ford said in an email to Military Times on Monday.
Ford did not say exactly what prompted Nigeria to end the training mission.
“The US government will continue other aspects of the extensive bilateral security relationship, as well as all other assistance programs, with Nigeria,” he said. “The US government is committed to the long tradition of partnership with Nigeria and will continue to engage future requests for cooperation and training.”
It’s unclear why the training partnership has ended.
