Nigeria and Turkey have agreed to deepen defence cooperation, with 200 Nigerian special forces personnel set to be sent to Turkey for immediate training under a new military partnership aimed at strengthening Abuja’s response to insurgency and banditry. The agreement was reached during a meeting between Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, and Turkey’s Defence Minister, Yaşar Güler, at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum 2026.
“We have agreed to move into training, production, improving on our defence industry cooperation,” Musa told Turkish media, according to Anadolu, as reported by Africanews. He said the arrangement would go beyond training to cover wider institutional collaboration between both countries’ defence establishments.
The deal also includes plans to establish what Nigerian officials described as a major military training facility in Nigeria. According to a statement from Abuja cited by Africanews, the two countries will further cooperate on technology transfer, intelligence sharing and advanced surveillance — areas seen as increasingly important as Nigeria faces threats from jihadist groups, armed bandits and cross-border instability spilling south from the Sahel.
Nigeria has been battling Boko Haram and its splinter faction, Islamic State West Africa Province, for years in the northeast, while heavily armed criminal gangs continue to terrorise communities in the northwest through killings, kidnappings and raids. The worsening instability across the Sahel has added to the pressure, with jihadist influence spreading toward coastal West African states. In that context, Abuja has been seeking to diversify its security partnerships and reduce overreliance on traditional Western allies.
The new defence move comes only months after President Bola Tinubu visited Turkey in January, the first such visit by a Nigerian head of state in nine years. During that trip, both countries signed agreements covering defence cooperation, infrastructure, trade and joint efforts against insurgency in the Sahel. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the time that Ankara was ready to share its experience in military training and intelligence.
Turkey has become a growing security partner for African states, helped in part by its reputation for relatively affordable military hardware, including armed drones. Musa acknowledged the appeal directly, saying Turkey had improved dramatically in military production while Nigeria was still developing its own capacity. That aligns with Abuja’s broader goal of boosting local defence manufacturing while gaining faster access to training and equipment through external partners.
Nigerian officials described the outcome of the latest talks as a significant step forward in Nigeria–Turkey defence relations, suggesting the partnership is moving from diplomatic goodwill into more concrete operational cooperation.
