Nigeria receives six warplanes from US to fight insurgency

ABUJA, 24 July 2021, (TON): Its air force said “Nigeria has received six of 12 turboprop light attack aircraft from the US to help fight mounting insecurity.”

Africa’s most populous nation faces several security crises, including a 12-year-old insurgency in the northeast, herder-farmer clashes in the center, kidnapping for ransom in the northwest and separatist agitation in the south.

Nigeria Air Force spokesman Edward Gabkwet said in a statement “the first batch of A-29 Super Tucano aircraft have arrived in Kano.”

He said on that six out of 12 had arrived, and the next batch would arrive in October.

The planes are built in the US by Sierra Nevada and its Brazilian partner, Embraer Defense and Security.

The $593-million deal was initially unveiled in May 2016 under former US president Barack Obama.

However, the Obama administration froze the sale just before handing over to Donald Trump, after the Nigerian military accidentally bombed a camp for people displaced by conflict in the northeast, killing 112 civilians.

The planes are built in the US by Sierra Nevada and its Brazilian partner, Embraer Defense and Security.

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