President Donald Trump said he ordered a military strike against the “remnants of ISIS terrorists” in Nigeria on Christmas Day.
US launches missile attack on ISIS in Nigeria
The Pentagon has released footage of a missile attack sent to Islamic State in Nigeria.
The United States launched an offensive against Islamic State militants in Nigeria on Christmas Day, after President Donald Trump threatened in November to storm Nigeria “with guns blazing” over what he called a “genocide” of Christians.
According to U.S. Africa Command, at the direction of President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and in coordination with Nigerian authorities, U.S. forces have launched an attack on “ISIS terrorists” in northwestern Nigeria.
President Trump said on Truth Social that he has ordered the military to launch “a strong and deadly attack against the ISIS terrorist bastards in northwestern Nigeria who are primarily targeting and brutally killing innocent Christians.”
The military “carried out a number of flawless attacks,” it added.
“More to come,” Hegseth wrote in the X post.
The operation marked the first time the United States launched a deadly attack in Nigeria as part of the fight against ISIS in Africa.
The United States began airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria on December 19, after a gunman suspected of having ties to a terrorist organization shot and killed two American soldiers and an interpreter stationed in the country earlier this month.
The airstrike confirmed Trump’s threats that began in late October over what he called the “mass murder of Nigerian Christians.” This issue has long been promoted by the internet right wing, and was recently grilled by President Trump. Continued violence in the country is affecting Christians, but experts say the situation is far more nuanced than President Trump has described.
Where was the strike?
U.S. Africa Command said the airstrike took place in Sokoto state in the northwestern part of the country, on the border with Niger.
The United States has not released further information on the number of targets attacked or the number of deaths. The Pentagon contacted USA TODAY with U.S. Africa Command, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the United States was coordinating the attack with the Nigerian government and the two countries were sharing intelligence. Foreign Minister Yusuf Tugar told CNN that he had discussed the airstrike with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on two phone calls beforehand.
“We are ready, willing and able to cooperate and coordinate with foreign governments committed to combating terrorism,” Tager said. “This is not a religious issue, this is an issue for innocent civilians in Nigeria and the wider region.”
Why is President Trump concerned about Nigeria?
President Trump first expressed concern about the killing of Christians in Nigeria in the fall. On October 31, he placed Nigeria on the State Department’s list of countries of particular concern that are involved in “particularly serious violations of religious freedom.”
The next day, he threatened on Truth Social that if the government “continues to allow the killing of Christians,” the United States could cut aid to Nigeria and “move into the now disgraceful ‘shooter’ country.”
Concern about violence directed specifically at Christians in Nigeria has long been widespread among right-wing and religious groups. Celebrities such as President Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Walz, talk show host Bill Maher, and rapper Nicki Minaj have recently weighed in on the topic.
Are Christians really being killed in Nigeria?
Nnamdi Obasi, Nigeria’s senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, said the country’s security challenges are “multidimensional” and Christians are not the only ones at risk.
Obasi said both Christians and Muslims, who make up about 60% of Nigeria’s population, are targets of violence.
Some attacks, such as suicide bombings, are said to be indiscriminate. Islamic places of worship including mosques, places of worship and Islamic schools were destroyed, he added.
“This is not a single story of Christian killings. There are different manifestations of violence in different parts of the country,” he said.
Obasi said the northwest, where the US announced it had launched attacks, was a “majority of Muslims” areas. That means most victims of the violence, which is perpetrated mainly by armed robberies in the region, are Muslims, he said.
Obasi said ISIS is primarily present in northeastern Nigeria. In the region, another faction of violent extremist group Boko Haram has split and formed alliances with other ISIS factions in the Middle East, he said.
Obasi said the group known as Laklawa in the northwest was initially brought to the area by locals to protect against bandit groups around 2017, but evolved into an extremist group in the years since.
ISIS in the Sahel (ISSP) has expanded its operations along the Niger-Nigeria border, including Sokoto, since early 2024, according to armed conflict location and incident data.
Obasi said the continued US operation, especially in defense of Christians, risks “further polarizing the country on religious grounds.”
“A US military operation that doubles down on protection for Christians will almost certainly be misinterpreted by Muslims as a unilateral response,” he said.
What does a strike do?
Javed Ali, who served as the National Security Council’s counterterrorism chief during Trump’s first term, said airstrikes alone are unlikely to destroy or significantly reduce ISIS’ presence in Nigeria. “It’s too big, it’s too dispersed, and Nigeria is a huge country,” he said.
“The jihadist environment in Midwest Africa has been strong and strong for decades,” said Ali, now an associate professor at the University of Michigan. The United States has deployed hundreds of troops and intelligence-gathering capabilities to fight Islamist groups in Africa, but there has never been a serious effort to launch an attack in Nigeria, he said.
“This is my first time,” he said.
Politicians react after US strikes ISIS targets in Nigeria
President Trump said U.S. forces had attacked Islamic State targets in Nigeria, claiming that the group was targeting Christians in the region.
Ali said other considerations would also be taken into account, such as whether ISIS would seek to retaliate against the United States or forces in the region if the attack was the beginning of a longer-term operation.
“Do we really understand the highly complex ethnic, religious and tribal makeup of a country like Nigeria?” he said. “If we don’t, the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan teach us: the deeper we become involved in these countries, the harder it will be to reach an end state,” he said.
Where is Nigeria?
Nigeria is located on the west coast of Africa. With a population of 218.5 million, it is the most populous country in Africa.
