The United States has significantly expanded aerial surveillance over Nigeria since late November, pointing to a renewed phase of security collaboration between Washington and Abuja, according to flight-tracking records and US officials quoted by Reuters.
The surveillance activity, first reported on Monday, involves intelligence-gathering aircraft flying repeatedly across large sections of Nigerian airspace. While the exact objectives of the missions have not been independently verified, analysts say the pattern suggests a broader effort to re-establish US intelligence coverage in West Africa.
The flights come against a politically charged backdrop. In November, former US President Donald Trump publicly threatened possible military action in Nigeria, accusing the government of failing to protect Christian communities from violent attacks. US officials have not directly linked the surveillance missions to those remarks.
Data from December shows the aircraft typically departing from Accra, Ghana’s capital, conducting flights over Nigeria, and then returning to Ghana. The aircraft is operated by Tenax Aerospace, a Mississippi-based contractor that provides specialized aircraft for security and intelligence operations and works closely with the US military. The company did not respond to media inquiries.
Liam Karr, Africa team lead at the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute, analyzed the flight data and said the operation appears to be coordinated from Accra. He described the Ghanaian capital as a long-established logistics hub for US military activity in Africa.
According to Karr, the missions likely reflect Washington’s efforts to rebuild surveillance capabilities in the region after Niger ordered US forces to vacate a key desert airbase last year and shifted security cooperation toward Russia. “We’ve seen intelligence and surveillance flights resume over Nigeria in recent weeks,” he told Reuters.
A former US official said the aircraft was one of several assets relocated to Ghana in November under the Trump administration. While the total number of aircraft currently stationed there remains unclear, the official said the missions involve monitoring militant groups such as Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province, as well as tracking a US pilot kidnapped earlier this year in neighbouring Niger.
A current US official confirmed that surveillance flights have taken place over Nigeria but declined to provide further details, citing diplomatic sensitivities. Another administration official said the US continues to work with Nigeria to counter terrorism and address religiously motivated violence.
The Pentagon acknowledged holding what it described as “productive meetings” with Nigerian officials following Trump’s comments but declined to discuss intelligence operations. Nigerian military officials and Ghana’s deputy defence minister did not respond to requests for comment.
Nigeria has consistently rejected claims that Christians are being systematically targeted, arguing that armed groups attack both Muslim and Christian communities and that framing the violence as religious persecution oversimplifies a complex security challenge.
A Nigerian security source told Reuters that during a November 20 meeting between Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, both sides agreed to deploy US air assets to support intelligence collection. Nigeria’s military has not publicly commented on that claim.
Flight data shows the Tenax-operated aircraft at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida on November 7. MacDill hosts the headquarters of the US Special Operations Command. The aircraft later arrived in Ghana on November 24, shortly after the high-level security talks, and has since conducted near-daily flights over Nigeria.
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The plane involved is a Gulfstream V, a long-range jet frequently adapted for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, according to aviation data.
