The Nigerian president holds a closed-door meeting with the army chief of staff and a senior French general.

Nigeria - Abubakar Sani 

Nigerian President Bola Tinbo held a closed-door meeting with Chief of Defence Staff General Olufemi Oluwedi and a French general at the presidential palace in the capital, Abuja.

Sources close to the president, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting was part of intensified cooperation on the security situation in Nigeria. The president later held an emergency security meeting with military leaders and intelligence chiefs.

The meeting was attended by the Chief of the Defence Staff, the commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force, the Director General of the State Security Service, the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, and the Inspector General of Police.

Deadly attacks against military forces

These meetings came after a colonel and six soldiers were killed on Sunday by a roadside bomb planted by militants in Borno State, in an attack that is one of the latest deadly strikes against military forces in the northeast of the country.

The meeting with the French general began around 2 p.m., and is the president's first official activity since returning from Bayelsa State on Friday. It comes three weeks after Tinobo announced that France had agreed to supply Nigeria with military equipment and provide training for its forces in the face of the insurgency in the northeast of the country.

A source close to the president confirmed to The Punch newspaper that “the president met with the Chief of the Defence Staff and a French general,” noting that Tinobo is seeking support from various countries to confront security challenges.

Another presidential official explained that the meeting was private, without revealing the name of the French general, and no photos or footage of the meeting were released.

This development comes after Tinubu announced on March 22, following his talks with Emmanuel Macron, that Nigeria had received French support in the field of military equipment and training.

During his meeting with state governors in Lagos, the president affirmed that his country is prepared to utilize its international relations and available lines of credit to secure the necessary military support, noting his intention to engage with other countries for this purpose.

These moves come amid a rapidly deteriorating security situation in the country, including a controversial air raid by the Nigerian Air Force on Saturday that killed more than 100 people, including civilians, at the Jele market near the border of Yobe and Borno states.

The military authorities defended the operation as a precise strike targeting a logistics center for armed groups, while Amnesty International condemned what it described as the ”reckless use of lethal force,” calling for an independent investigation.

In a related context, the US State Department announced on April 8 that it was allowing non-essential staff to leave its embassy in Abuja due to the deteriorating security situation, and also raised the classification of 23 Nigerian states to the “Do Not Travel” (Level 4) level, which is the highest level of warning.

Threats from armed groups

The United States pointed to threats from armed groups in the northeast, criminal gangs in the northwest, and violence in southern regions, while the Nigerian government asserted that this warning reflects internal US measures and does not express the general situation in the country.

For its part, the Combined Task Force in the Northeast, Operation Hadin Kay, announced that the attack that occurred on Sunday came after clashes with armed elements, in which a field commander was killed by an IED explosion while he was heading to assess the situation, accompanied by six soldiers.

The statement affirmed that the commander demonstrated great courage and outstanding field leadership, stressing that the soldiers' sacrifices will remain firmly etched in the memory of the armed forces and the Nigerian people.

In Benue State, at least 14 people, including a policeman, were killed in separate attacks by suspected herders on several villages, reflecting the continuing security challenges in different parts of the country.

Survivors of the “Jili” market raid recounted the details of the attack, confirming that the planes dropped several bombs suddenly, resulting in dozens of deaths, while some of them indicated that they were unaware that the market was being used for military purposes.

The escalation of these events reflects the scale of the security challenges facing Nigeria, amid ongoing military operations against armed groups and increasing international and domestic pressure to improve the security situation.