Nigeria on Friday signalled more strikes against jihadist groups were expected after a Christmas Day bombardment by US forces against militants in the north of the country.
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The west African country faces multiple interlinked security crises in its north, where jihadists have been waging an insurgency in the northeast since 2009 and armed “bandit” gangs raid villages and stage kidnappings in the northwest.
The US strikes come after Abuja and Washington were locked in a diplomatic dispute over what Trump characterised as the mass killing of Christians amid Nigeria’s myriad armed conflicts.
Washington’s framing of the violence as amounting to Christian “persecution” is rejected by the Nigerian government and independent analysts, but has nonetheless resulted in increased security coordination.
“It’s Nigeria that provided the intelligence,” the country’s foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, told broadcaster Channels TV, saying he was on the phone with US State Secretary Marco Rubio ahead of the bombardment.
Asked if there would be more strikes, Tuggar said: “It is an ongoing thing, and we are working with the US. We are working with other countries as well.”
The Department of Defense’s US Africa Command, using an acronym for the Islamic State group, said “multiple ISIS terrorists” were killed in an attack in the northwestern state of Sokoto.
US defense officials later posted video of what appeared to be the nighttime launch of a missile from the deck of a battleship flying the US flag.
Which of Nigeria’s myriad armed groups were targeted remains unclear.
Nigeria’s jihadist groups are mostly concentrated in the northeast of the country, but have made inroads into the northwest.
Researchers have recently linked some members from an armed group known as Lakurawa — the main jihadist group located in Sokoto State — to Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), which is mostly active in neighbouring Niger and Mali.
Other analysts have disputed those links, though research on Lakurawa is complicated as the term has been used to describe various armed fighters in the northwest.
Those described as Lakurawa also reportedly have links to al-Qaeda affiliated group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), a rival group to ISSP.
While Abuja has welcomed the strikes, “I think Trump would not have accepted a ‘No’ from Nigeria,” said Malik Samuel, an Abuja-based researcher for Good Governance Africa, an NGO.
Amid the diplomatic pressure, Nigerian authorities are keen to be seen as cooperating with the US, Samuel told AFP, even though “both the perpetrators and the victims in the northwest are overwhelmingly Muslim”.
Tuggar said that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu “gave the go-ahead” for the strikes.
The foreign minister added: “It must be made clear that it is a joint operation, and it is not targeting any religion nor simply in the name of one religion or the other.”
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President Donald Trump said US forces conducted “powerful and deadly” strikes Thursday against Islamic State group militants in northwestern Nigeria, weeks after he warned against any systemic assault on Christians in the country.
The Nigerian foreign ministry early Friday confirmed the air strikes, describing them as “precision hits on terrorist targets” in the country.
The Department of Defense’s US Africa Command said “multiple ISIS terrorists” were killed in an attack in Sokoto state conducted at the request of Nigerian authorities, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
Few details were provided and it was not clear how many people were killed.
Trump said he had “previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was.”
“MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
US defense officials later posted video of what appeared to be the nighttime launch of a missile from the deck of a battleship flying the US flag.
The attack is the first by US forces in Nigeria under Trump, and comes after the Republican leader unexpectedly berated the west African nation in October and November, saying Christians there faced an “existential threat” that amounted to “genocide” amid Nigeria’s myriad armed conflicts.
That diplomatic offensive was welcomed by some but interpreted by others as inflaming religious tensions in Africa’s most populous country, which has seen bouts of sectarian violence in the past.
Nigeria’s government and independent analysts reject framing the country’s violence in terms of religious persecution — a narrative long used by the Christian right in the United States and Europe.
But Trump, spotlighting what his administration says is global persecution of Christians, stressed last month that Washington was ready to take military action in Nigeria to counter such killings.
– ‘Grateful’ for cooperation –
The Nigerian foreign ministry said the country was engaged with international partners.
“Nigerian authorities remain engaged in structured security cooperation with international partners, including the United States of America, in addressing the persistent threat of terrorism and violent extremism,” the ministry said.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said he was “grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation” in an X post.
The United States this year placed Nigeria back on the list of countries of “particular concern” regarding religious freedom, and has restricted the issuance of visas to Nigerians.
Trump last month also threatened to stop all aid to Abuja if it “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”
Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and a largely Christian south.
Its northeast has been in the grip of jihadist violence for more than 15 years by the Islamist Boko Haram group, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives and displaced two million people.
At the same time, large parts of the country’s northwest, north and center have been hit by criminal gangs known as “bandits” who attack villages, killing and kidnapping residents.
On Wednesday an explosion ripped through a mosque in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing at least seven worshippers. No armed groups immediately claimed responsibility.