Prominent pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has applauded the United States Government for making good its pledge to facilitate the presence in Nigeria of the American security forces to partner with their Nigerian counterpart in the counterterrorism operations to wipe out terrorists engaged in the massive killing of Nigerian citizens.

HURIWA was reacting to reports the announcement by the U.S. Africa Command that a small team of American forces has been deployed to Nigeria.

Reacting to the news which broke on Tuesday night, February 3, 2026, HURIWA however cautioned Defence Minister, Gen. Christopher Musa (Rtd.), to ensure that Nigeria’s military chiefs “implement preemptive strategies to stop saboteurs embedded within the armed forces of Nigeria from leaking out intelligence shared with the Nigerian military by the United States forces to terrorists.”

“Nigerian security heads must root out undesirable elements within the armed forces that collude with terrorists and are in the habit of leaking out information and intelligence from the military to terrorists which mostly compromise the counterterrorism operations. If the activities of saboteurs aren’t minimised by Nigeria, then the United States forces may not trust us to maintain the partnership which is largely in our own interest,” HURIWA said Wednesday in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.