Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters Says It Will Partner With AES States to Reposition the MNJTF
Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters said on 5 November 2026 that it is working with junta-led Alliance of Sahel States (AES) countries on plans to reposition the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) against Boko Haram and other Lake Chad Basin threats. The Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba, spoke at the same joint security briefing at the National Counter Terrorism Centre / Office of the National Security Adviser in Abuja where he also ruled out a ceasefire with Boko Haram and ISWAP — covered separately by Defence Mena here.
Premium Times and The Nation both reported the AES/MNJTF remarks from that Thursday briefing.
What Uba said about AES and the MNJTF
Uba said the repositioning effort was discussed at a high-level forum of former and serving MNJTF force commanders, academics and experts on the future of the coalition. The forum, he said, also examined implications of AES members’ withdrawal from ECOWAS and diplomatic alternatives.
“We also examined the diplomatic alternatives and options available to address issues arising from the withdrawal of those countries from ECOWAS,” Uba said, according to Premium Times and The Nation.
He added that stakeholders would “begin to see the dividends of that high-level engagement very soon.” In the Thursday remarks he did not name the forum’s date or spell out the operational format of AES cooperation.
Likely forum: National Defence College, 6 October
A separate official post on the MNJTF site (mnjtffmm.org) says Defence Headquarters convened a High-Level International Forum on the MNJTF at the National Defence College in Abuja, opened on 6 October 2026, with Defence Minister Gen. Christopher Musa (rtd) as special guest. The theme was repositioning the MNJTF for evolving Lake Chad threats. That is the publicly documented forum matching Uba’s description; he did not explicitly name it on 5 November, so the link is attributed to the MNJTF readout rather than presented as his own citation.
MNJTF background and the Niger hinge
The MNJTF was established around 2015 with Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin as members. Niger stopped participating after joining AES and withdrew troops (Nation cites a March 2025 withdrawal). An African Union communiqué dated 18 May 2026 described Niger’s action as a temporary suspension and urged full participation again, according to The Nation.
AES — Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso — formed in 2023 and later exited ECOWAS. Restoring workable coordination with Niger is the practical Lake Chad hinge for any MNJTF “repositioning”; Mali and Burkina Faso are AES partners but are not historic MNJTF troop contributors in the same Lake Chad sense as Niger.
What has not been announced
No signed partnership text was released on 5 November. Uba did not detail force structure, basing, funding, intelligence-sharing rules or whether Niger troops would return under AES political cover. “Partner with AES” remains a political and diplomatic signal until concrete arrangements appear. Readers should treat the statement as intent and process, not as a completed operational reset.
Turkey’s wider Sahel defence-industry footprint, including events such as BAMEX in Mali, is a separate commercial track; see Defence Mena’s BAMEX 2026 coverage if that context is useful. It is not part of the DHQ–AES–MNJTF announcement.
Bottom line: Abuja says high-level work with AES states on MNJTF repositioning is under way and that results should show “very soon,” while the same briefing kept kinetic operations against Boko Haram and ISWAP on the table. Until details land, the story is diplomatic signalling around a weakened Lake Chad coalition, not a confirmed new force design.
Sources
- Premium Times, “Nigeria to partner with AES countries to reposition MNJTF”, 5 November 2026
- The Nation, “Nigeria explores diplomatic options with AES states amid MNJTF review”, 5 November 2026
- MNJTF (mnjtffmm.org), official High-Level Forum readout, opened 6 October 2026
- Military Africa, 5–6 November 2026 summary (facts cross-checked against Premium Times / Nation; prose not reused)
- Defence Mena: DHQ rules out ceasefire with Boko Haram and ISWAP
