The Trump administration is set to sell to Nigeria a dozen ground attack aircraft to fight against Boko Haram militants.
The proposed sale of Embraer A-29 Super Tucanos has been in the works for more than a year. It got the nod of the Obama administration buoyed by President Muhammadu Buhari anti’s military and anti-corruption reforms.
The US Congress will be notified of the deal “within weeks,” according to Associated Press. The sale of the aircraft to Nigeria has been stalled by Amnesty International repeatedly accusation against the Nigerian government of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity for its maltreatment of prisoners, accounts of torture and mass executions in its fight against the Boko Haram terrorists.
The Nigerian Air Force primarily operates a mix of aging Chinese fighter jets and Russian helicopter transports and gunships, according to the 2017 International Institute for Strategic Studies’ publication that tracks countries’ militaries, known as the Military Balance.
The small, single-engine A-29 would likely fill a gap in the Nigerian Air Force’s capabilities. With the right armament, targeting equipment and a properly trained pilot, the A-29 can drop munitions with relatively high degrees of precision.
