US training cancellation 'logistical, not political'

Abuja - Nigeria on Friday said that a decision
to cancel US training of its soldiers to fight
Boko Haram was a logistical, not a political
decision.
The US Embassy in Abuja announced on
Monday that the Nigerian government had
halted a training programme of an army
battalion, which would have developed into a
unit to take on the militants.
The cancellation came after Nigeria's
ambassador to Washington last month
criticised the United States for the "scope,
nature and content" of its support for the
counter-insurgency.
In particular, he said Washington had failed to
provide the weapons required to deliver a
"killer punch" to Boko Haram.
But Nigeria's national security spokesman,
Mike Omeri, played down talk of strained
diplomatic ties, saying it did not affect the
countries' existing military cooperation.
"This is just a training component for one
battalion of the Nigerian Army," he told AFP.
"We have had the first and second phase of
that training, so it is not as if the whole
bilateral military agreement has been
suspended. The suspension is logistical and
not political."
Omeri was quoted as saying in the Nigerian
media on Friday that the cancelled third phase
required military equipment to be withdrawn
from current operations to be used for
training.
The US Embassy had said it regretted the end
of the training programme, which had been
offered in the wake of Boko Haram's
abduction of 276 schoolgirls in northeast
Nigeria in mid-April.
A number of foreign powers sent surveillance
and intelligence specialists to Nigeria to assist
the military with the search for the 219
teenagers who are still being held.
The military has been unable to end the five-
year Islamist insurgency, which has left more
than 13,000 dead and displaced more than
one million people.
The main opposition has alleged that the
government has been playing politics with the
insurgency, as the worst-hit areas are unlikely
to vote for it in next year's elections.
- AFP