France has found 12 “extra” Alpha Jet aircraft to supply to Nigeria

This story becomes strange when you remember whose orbit of influence this African country is currently in

Source: Defence Express

The Nigerian Air Force will receive 12 Alpha Jet combat training aircraft from France, of which six will be directly put into service, and the other six – used as donors of spare parts. Nigeria itself is one of the traditional operators of this type of aircraft, the Nigerian Air Force received 24 such aircraft in the 1980s, but only about ten of them remain in service today.

France itself expects to use the transfer of these aircraft to strengthen its relations with Nigeria, which is under threat from terrorist groups “Boko Haram” and ISWAP (ISIS in West Africa). This is reported by the French portal Opex360.

As follows from the text of the publication, France itself has reason to believe that the step with the transfer of these aircraft will have the appropriate impact on Nigeria itself. Especially since the Nigerian president himself recently visited France on a visit, the first in the last 24 years.

In addition, in 2016, France and Nigeria signed a defense cooperation agreement that is still in effect. Therefore, based on these factors, it seems quite logical that the French decided to sell their 12 “excess” Alpha Jet aircraft to the Nigerians. Moreover, the stability of Nigeria is of great importance for security in West Africa as a whole

The authors of Opex360 also separately ironize that President Macron feels a special attachment to Nigeria as a country where he underwent a six-month internship at the local French embassy as part of the National School of Administration (ENA) courses.

From Defense Express we emphasize that this story with the transfer of Alpha Jet aircraft from France to Nigeria looks strange, because Nigeria itself has currently entered the Kremlin's zone of influence, and even relies on Russian mercenaries who came to replace the French military.

But perhaps the French themselves are paying more attention to the fact that it is precisely the weapons in The Russian Federation is not in a hurry to buy even Nigeria. For example, in September 2024 it became known that the Russian Federation had lost another defense market, because Nigeria would be the first to purchase attack helicopters from India.

Here we can also mention the report from French intelligence in March 2024 that some African countries were disappointed with weapons from China, and against this background, the French themselves concluded that they simply needed to be more persistent in promoting their weapons on the African continent.