U.S. surveillance planes have been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over Nigerian airspace since November, following President Donald Trump’s threat of a military invasion of Nigeria to eliminate terrorists killing Christians.

“The U.S. has been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over large parts of Nigeria since late November,” Reuters reported on Monday, citing flight-tracking data and current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The report added, “The U.S. contractor-operated aircraft used for the surveillance operations typically takes off from Ghana and flies over Nigeria before returning to Accra, the Ghanaian capital, the tracking data for December shows.”

According to the report, Liam Karr, the Africa Team Lead for the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute, analysed the flight data. He said the operation appeared to be running out of an airport in Accra, a known hub for the U.S. military’s logistics network in Africa.

“In recent weeks we’ve seen a resumption of intelligence and surveillance flights in Nigeria,” Mr Karr said, explaining that the operation was an early sign the U.S. was rebuilding its capacity in the region after Niger ordered U.S. troops to leave its territory last year.

Earlier in November, Peoples Gazette cited The New York Times, reporting that the American military had drawn up three plans on how to invade northern Nigeria to eliminate terrorists killing Christians, days after Mr Trump declared Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern and ordered the U.S. Department of War to prepare for the operation.

The U.S. military conducting surveillance flights from Ghana aligns with one of the plans outlined in the November report, though Nigerian authorities have pushed back against Mr Trump’s declaration of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern and the invasion order amid an online campaign alleging Christian genocide in Nigeria, led by U.S. lawmakers Ted Cruz, Riley Moore, Nancy Mace, among others.

Amid the back-and-forth over alleged Christian genocide in Nigeria, Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, has visited Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of War, while a U.S. congressional delegation has visited Nigeria on a fact-finding mission on how to tackle terrorism and the killing of Christians in the country.