The US State Department has confirmed  the sale of 12 Viper attack helicopters which worth almost one billion dollars to Nigeria, despite concerns over basic human rights.

The buying  of AH-1Z Vipers consists of guidance and night imaginative and prescient imaging structures in addition to training  for an predicted 997 million bucks.

It “will better equip Nigeria to contribute to shared protection targets, sell nearby balance and build interoperability with the US and different Western companions,” the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a announcement on Thursday.

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a strategic partner in sub-Saharan Africa.”

US principal contractor Bell Textron lists the Vipers’ capacity for reconnaissance and escort missions as well as its firepower.

Last November US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Nigeria and urged Africa’s most populous country to take on a bigger role on the continent.

Washington has long courted Nigerian leaders but baulked at the bloody repression of peaceful protests against police violence in October 2020.

Congress had also delayed the sale of military equipment to Nigeria where the army’s commitment to protect civilians while fighting a jihadist uprising in the northwest has been called into question.

But closing year, Nigeria began taking delivery of US Super Tucano light assault plane that then-president Donald Trump authorized in 2017.

That overturned the suspension of income by his predecessor Barack Obama after Nigerian planes by accident bombed a refugee camp killing more than 100 people.