The Nigerian military on Sunday dismissed reports alleging that United States military aircraft recently delivered arms and ammunition to parts of the country, describing the claims as false and misleading.
The rebuttal followed viral social media posts which referenced a publication by The New York Times alleging that three US military planes landed in Nigeria between Thursday and Friday, with at least one aircraft said to have offloaded ammunition and equipment in Maiduguri, Borno State.
The report quoted a US Department of Defence official as saying, “These initial flights are the vanguard of what will be a stream of C-17 transport flights into three main locations across Nigeria.”
However, senior officials at Defence Headquarters and the Nigerian Army, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that no such arms delivery occurred in either Borno State or Kaduna State within the period under review.
A senior source at Army Headquarters stated that no US military aircraft landed in Kaduna State last week, while another source within the theatre command in the North-East described the reports as “fake and baseless.”
An official at the Muhammadu Buhari International Airport clarified that the aircraft which landed last Friday was a Max Air flight conveying Nigerian troops and not American military planes.
“The insinuation that foreign military aircraft offloaded arms in Maiduguri or Kaduna is completely unfounded,” the official said.
The military authorities acknowledged that Nigeria maintains bilateral security cooperation with countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
According to the officials, existing partnerships cover intelligence sharing, surveillance, reconnaissance and other forms of operational support.
They stressed, however, that such collaborations do not translate to unannounced foreign aircraft delivering weapons on Nigerian soil.
The clarification comes amid intensified security engagements between Nigeria and the US following reports that American forces conducted operations against ISIS-linked camps in Sokoto on Christmas Day 2025.
Reaffirming the Armed Forces’ commitment to combating terrorism and insurgency, the officials urged members of the public to disregard what they described as inaccurate and sensational reports capable of causing unnecessary anxiety.
They maintained that ongoing counterterrorism operations across the country remain under coordinated strategies led by Nigerian authorities in collaboration with international partners.
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