Even worse is the reason, the White House was worried about the Nigerian army committing human rights violations… yes, the same army fighting Boko Haram.

WASHINGTON — The United States paused the resale of US-made military helicopters by Israel to the Nigerian government for its fight against Boko Haram last summer, according to Abuja.

The transfer of such aircraft requires a review, Obama administration officials told The Jerusalem Post, in order to determine its “consistency with US policy interests.”

Reviews of this kind take place in the case of “any requests for one country to transfer US-origin defense items to another country,” White House Assistant Press Secretary and Director for Strategic Communications Ned Price said.

According to a report initially published in a local Nigerian daily, This Day, Nigerian government officials believe a large sale was halted because of “unfounded allegations of human rights violations by our troops,” one such official is quoted saying. The Nigerian official is not named in the report.

“This,” the official continued, “after the office of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu had initially approved the purchase.”

US officials tell the Post that such transfers must be consistent with a policy directive revised by President Barack Obama in January, which outlines the criteria for conventional weapons sales.