President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing forward with plans
to sell up to a dozen aircraft to Nigeria’s air force for the fight
against the extremist group Boko Haram.
Sources said the deal could be worth up to $600m.
Sources
also said the Super Tucano A-29 aircraft, an agile, propeller-driven
plane with reconnaissance and surveillance as well as attack
capabilities is made by Brazil’s Embraer.
A second production line
is in Florida, in a partnership between Embraer and privately held
Sierra Nevada Corp of Sparks, Nevada.
Former President Barack
Obama’s administration originally agreed on the sale, but delayed it
after incidents including the Nigerian Air Force’s bombing of a refugee
camp in January that killed 90 to 170 civilians.
The Trump
administration wants to push ahead to boost Nigeria’s efforts to fight
Boko Haram and bolster hiring in the United States by defence firms.
“We’ve been told that the administration is going to go forward with that transaction,” a congressional aide said.
Formal notification of the deal has not yet been sent to Congress but is expected shortly.
Trump has said he plans to go ahead with foreign defence sales delayed under Obama by human rights concerns.
A senior Nigerian military source in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital,
confirmed that the sale would go ahead and said it would also involve
training, surveillance and military intelligence “to support … the
ongoing insurgency war.”
In March, the Trump administration
informed Congress of its plans to pursue a five billion dollars sale to
Bahrain of Lockheed Martin F-16s and related equipment, which had been
held up under Obama when Bahrain failed to meet human rights targets.
Reuters
first reported the Obama administration’s plan to sell the Embraer
aircraft to Nigeria in May 2016, as a vote of confidence in President
Muhammadu Buhari’s drive to reform the military.
The Super Tucano costs more than $10m each and the price can go much higher depending on the configuration.
It is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT six engine.
Trump’s plan to move ahead with the Nigerian sale was first reported on Monday by the Associated Press.
The U.S. congressional source said rights concerns remain, despite support for the sale from some lawmakers.
There
are also questions about whether Nigeria will be able to pay the full
$600m for the aircraft, equipment, training and support.
U.S. officials said Buhari raised frustration with delays in the sale in a phone call with Trump in February.
