A TEAM of US officials and private advisers has arrived in Abuja to start work on reform of the Nigerian military, the government announced. The assistance is part of a larger, $20m package agreed by Washington earlier this year aimed at boosting civilian control over the military and improving peacekeeping capacity in the country. The officials, accompanied by eight representatives of the privately-operated US military training firm Military Professional Resource Incorporated (MPRI) met with Defence Minister Theophilus Danjuma to discuss the reforms agreed with the United States earlier this year. The Nigerian military has run the country for most of the 40 years since independence from Britain in 1960. Bernd McConnell, the head of the MPRI team, said his firm’s role would be limited to improving civilian oversight of the military, and would not involve specific military training. – AFP