Nigeria and Turkey have signed a wide-ranging defence agreement that will see 200 Nigerian special forces soldiers deployed to Turkey for training, as Africa's most populous nation seeks new partners to tackle a 17-year jihadist insurgency in its north.
Nigerian Defence Minister General Christopher Musa announced the deal on Saturday at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum 2026, held in the southern Turkish city of Antalya, following talks with his Turkish counterpart Yaşar Güler. The agreement, which builds on a military cooperation protocol signed during President Bola Tinubu's visit to Turkey in January — the first by a Nigerian head of state in nine years — covers troop training, joint defence production, technology transfer, intelligence sharing, and advanced surveillance. A major military training facility is also to be established on Nigerian soil, and the initial deployment of the 200 elite soldiers is expected immediately upon Musa's return to Abuja. Field exercises between Nigerian and Turkish military personnel are planned to follow.
Nigeria has long battled an Islamist insurgency in its northeast, led primarily by Boko Haram and its rival splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). The country's security challenges have intensified in recent years, with heavily armed criminal gangs — known as bandits — wreaking havoc across the northwest through raids, killings, and kidnappings. The broader deterioration of security across the Sahel, the vast semi-arid belt stretching along the southern edge of the Sahara desert, has further complicated matters by giving jihadist groups room to expand across West Africa.
The partnership with Turkey is part of a deliberate Nigerian strategy to diversify its security relationships. Musa noted that Turkish-made drones and helicopters have long been used by Nigeria's armed forces, and praised Turkey's experience in counterterrorism as directly applicable to Nigeria's own conflicts. Turkey is the world's leading exporter of armed drones, widely regarded as cost-effective battlefield tools. Notably, the agreement comes just weeks after the deployment of American military instructors to Nigeria — meaning Abuja is now turning to a second NATO member for security assistance.
Why this matters: Nigeria's effort to broaden its pool of security partners reflects both the urgency of its internal crises and a broader diplomatic recalibration at a time of shifting global alliances. With the Sahel increasingly unstable and Western relationships under strain, the deepening of Nigeria-Turkey ties signals that middle powers are playing a growing role in African security architecture.