Category World News

The Tajik government reported several armed incursions this month, straining its fragile relationship with Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders, as tensions are roiling along the Tajikstan-Afghanistan border.

More than a dozen people have been killed in attacks by men whom Tajik authorities call “terrorists” and the resulting clashes with Tajik forces, officials in Dushanbe and Beijing said. Chinese nationals are among the victims of the former Soviet Union’s mountainous terrain.

At least five people were killed in the most recent fighting this week, including “three terrorists,” according to officials in the Shamsiddin Shokhin district of Tajikistan.

Tajikistan has long opposed the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, a country it shares a largely unsecured 1, 340km (830-mile) border with.

The frequency of recent border clashes raises questions about the Taliban’s ability to impose order and security, and despite the two countries’ cautious diplomatic exchanges to adjust to new regional realities, according to analysts.

What is known about the clashes along the Tajik-Afghan border and why they are important:

What is going on at the border of Tajikistan and Afghanistan?

The border passes through southern Tajikistan’s and northeastern Afghanistan’s remote, mountainous terrain along the Panj river.

On Thursday, Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security said in a statement that “three members of a terrorist organisation” crossed into Tajik territory on Tuesday. The men were located the following morning and engaged in firefighting with Tajik border guards, according to the committee. According to the report, three intruders and five others were killed.

Tajik officials did not name the armed men or specify which group they belonged to. The authorities claimed at the scene that they had discovered three M-16 rifles, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, three foreign-made pistols with silencers, ten hand grenades, a night vision scope, and explosives.

Dushanbe claimed that this was the third attack in the past month that amounted to the death of its personnel. It was carried out by Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province.

These attacks, Tajik officials said on Thursday, “prove that the Taliban government is demonstrating serious and repeated irresponsibility and non-commitment in fulfilling its international obligations and consistent promises to ensure security … and to combat members of terrorist organisations”.

The Taliban were asked to “apologise to the people of Tajikistan and take effective measures to ensure security along the shared border,” according to the Tajik statement.

Although Tajikistan has not stated what the attack’s intentions may be, they have reportedly targeted Chinese businesses and residents employed there.

How does China manage to get all this?

With a sizable footprint in infrastructure, mining, and other border-region projects, Beijing is the country’s largest creditor and one of its most powerful economic partners.

China and Tajikistan also share a 477km (296-mile) border running through the high-altitude Pamir Mountains in eastern Tajikistan, adjacent to China’s Xinjiang region.

In the final week of November, two attacks were launched against Chinese businesses and individuals. Three Chinese nationals were killed when a drone carrying an explosive device attacked a compound owned by Shohin SM, a private Chinese gold-mining company, on November 26 in the remote Khatlon region of Tajikik-Afghanistan.

In a second attack on November 30, a group of men armed with guns opened fire on workers employed by the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation, killing at least two people in Tajikistan’s Darvoz district.

According to Tajik officials, those attacks took place in villages in the province of Badakhshan in Afghanistan, but they did not reveal any affiliations or motivations.

In Pakistan’s Balochistan province and along the Afghan-Pakistan border, Chinese nationals are also targeted.

China’s embassy in Dushanbe advised Chinese companies and personnel to evacuate the border area. According to Chinese officials, Tajikistan should take all necessary steps to protect the safety of Chinese businesses and citizens there.

Who is the perpetrator of these attacks?

While the attackers have not been identified, analysts and observers believe the attacks carry the hallmarks of the ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in Khorasan Province (ISKP), which, they said, aims to discredit Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders.

According to Ibraheem Bahiss, an analyst at the International Crisis Group in Kabul, “The ISKP has attacked foreigners inside Afghanistan and carried out attacks on foreigners inside Afghanistan as a key pillar of their strategy.”

According to Bahiss, “the goal is to transform the Taliban’s standing as a security provider into something that regional governments should work with.”

What response has the Taliban given to these attacks?

Kabul expressed its “deep sorrow” over the killings of Chinese workers on November 28.

The Taliban placed the blame for the violence on an unnamed armed group, which, according to the Taliban, is “striving to create chaos and instability in the region and to sow distrust among countries,” and gave Tajikistan the assurance of full cooperation.

The Taliban’s interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, said Kabul is still committed to the 2020 Doha Agreement, which allows for a gradual withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan in exchange for Taliban commitments to stop Afghanistan from acting as a base for attacks on other nations.

Addressing a police cadet graduation ceremony at the National Police Academy in Kabul on Thursday, Haqqani said Afghanistan posed no threat to other countries and the door to dialogue remains open.

We want to talk through dialogue about issues, mistrust, or miscommunications. The confrontational test has been passed. We may be weak in resources, but our faith and will are strong”, he said, adding that security had improved to the extent that Taliban officials now travel across the country without weapons.

No “terrorist groups” are operating out of Afghanistan, according to the Taliban. The UN sanctions-monitoring committee recently cited the presence of several armed groups, including ISKP, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, al-Qaeda, the Turkistan Islamic Party, Jamaat Ansarullah, and Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan.

Jamaat Ansarullah is a Tajik group linked to al-Qaeda-aligned networks and active primarily in northern Afghanistan near the Tajik border.

How do Tajikistan and the Taliban interact?

For decades, the relationship between Tajikistan and the Taliban has been defined by deep ideological hostility and ethnic mistrust with Dushanbe one of the group’s fiercest critics in Central Asia.

Tajikistan joined the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, which was led by former defense minister and military leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Tajikistan was the only country in its neighbors to object to the new government’s official recognition following the Taliban’s resumption of power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

However, pragmatic diplomatic engagement quietly began about 2023, driven by economic necessity and shared security fears over the presence of ISKP. A senior Tajik delegation made its first trip to Kabul since the Taliban’s return to power in November, accelerating the restoration of relations there.

However, the two governments continue to exchange accusations that one country has “terrorists,” which is a significant thorn in bilateral relations, and that drug trafficking is occurring across their borders.

The Tajik-Afghan border has long been a major trafficking route for Afghan heroin and methamphetamine into Central Asia and onwards to Russia and Europe, exploiting the area’s rugged terrain and weak policing.

The rising frequency of clashes is intriguing and new, and it raises the possibility of a new threat, according to Bahiss.

The Taliban has struggled to stop the threat from armed opposition groups, according to Bahiss, and Badakshan province, from which Tajik authorities claim the attacks on Chinese citizens come.

This security issue has been further complicated by the Taliban’s crackdown on poppy cultivation in the province, he said. Farmers in the north have resisted this policy, and the Taliban has. Poppies are the only viable cash crop because of the terrain in Badakshan, a major reason for this.

How are other neighbors and the Taliban faring?

Some of its neighbors have maintained a pragmatic transactional relationship since the Taliban retakes control of Afghanistan in 2021, whereas others haven’t.

Relations with Pakistan, previously its patron, have particularly deteriorated. Islamabad accuses Kabul of houseing Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (also known as the Pakistan Taliban) fighters. When Pakistan launched air strikes in Kabul, Khost, and other provinces in November, sparking retaliatory Taliban attacks on border posts, tensions erupted over this matter.

Dozens of people were killed before a ceasefire was brokered by Qatar and Turkiye. Since then, both sides have been fighting, accusing one another of breaking the fragile truce.

The Taliban blames Pakistan for its “own security failures,” rejecting Islamabad’s claims.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States has launched “powerful and deadly” strikes against organizations it claims are connected to ISIL (ISIS) in Nigeria.

The unprecedented Christmas Day strikes came after weeks of accusations from Trump and top Republicans about an alleged “Christian genocide” they say has been enabled by the Nigerian government. The country’s troubled, conflict-rifled country has the first direct US military intervention ever.

Neither side has shared precise information about the identity of the targets struck and the results of the strikes. According to security analyst Kabir Adamu from Beacon Security and Intelligence in Abuja, “Lakurawa,” an armed group that is affiliated with an ISIL offshoot, is one of the likely targets. Its profile is still being studied by researchers.

In the northwestern Sokoto State, Jabo appeared to have been hit, but there are no known ISIL-linked cells there. Furthermore, when Trump and other US right wingers have referred to a “Christian genocide” In Nigeria, they have usually mentioned an entirely different area in central Nigeria.

According to Femi Owolade of the UK’s Sheffield Hallam University, the Sokoto Caliphate, which is responsible for the spread of Islam into Nigeria and is revered by Nigerian muslims, is highly symbolic, and it fits into the Trump administration’s strategy of “saving” Nigerian Christians.

“Striking on Christmas Day reinforces perceptions of a religiously motivated confrontation or a renewed religious ‘ crusade'”, he said.

What we know about the strikes is as follows:

What transpired?

US President Donald Trump revealed in a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday that the US had launched “numerous perfect” strikes on “ISIS positions” in northwest Nigeria.

“Tonight, the United States launched a powerful and lethal strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have targeted and viciously murdered, primarily, innocent Christians, at rates unheard for many years, and even centuries!” …”

Trump continued to use them if the alleged slaughter of Christians continued, but he did not provide specifics about which or how many targets were targeted.

The US Africa Command said in a statement that an initial assessment of the strikes had revealed “multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in the ISIS camps”.

Pete Hegseth, the US’s defense secretary, thanked Nigeria for supporting the strikes. The (US) “is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight – on Christmas. More to come,” he wrote on the social media platform X.

In another post on X, the US Defense Department shared a video showing what appeared to be the moment a bomb was fired from a US warship in an unmarked location. According to Murtala Abdullahi, a consultant for the Goro Initiative, it is likely that the US has launched missiles from a position in the Gulf of Guinea.

In a statement on Friday morning, Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed the attacks and said they targeted elements based in the northwest of the country.

The strikes were carried out within an international cooperation framework that allows the sharing of intelligence and strategic coordination with the US and others, “consistent with international law, mutual respect for sovereignty, and shared commitments to regional and global security,” according to Nigerian authorities, who have vehemently refuted the allegations of a “Christian genocide.”

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Tuggar said both parties closely cooperated on the attack and that the US Secretary of State had called him before the strikes were launched. However, Tugargar added that the strikes were not motivated by religion and that Nigeria is facing a complex security issue that is also affecting other nations in the area.

“It is a regional conflict, it is not a Nigeria Christian-Muslim conflict”, he said.

What are the targets known to us?

At least one town – Jabo in Nigeria’s northwestern Sokoto State – was confirmed to have been hit, analyst Adamu said. Residents there have shared photos of the location that appear to be fragments of a bomb, while others have posted videos of a massive fire on a farm. The information could not be independently verified by Al Jazeera.

According to Adamu, “There are no casualties as of this morning,” adding that it’s unclear why Jabo was chosen because there are no known ISIL-linked terror cells there.

Locals on social media also questioned why their town had been targeted.

According to a spokesperson for the Nigerian Foreign Ministry, the strikes were carried out on the basis of intelligence.

“The air strikes covered a precise area, and what people are seeing are fragments that fell in Jabo”, he said.

ISIL: Is it present in Nigeria?

Yes, about six ideological armed groups exist in Nigeria, all of them linked to either ISIL (ISIS) or al-Qaeda.

In their operations in the country’s predominantly Muslim northeast and northwest regions, they have targeted both Christian and Muslim communities.

The strikes on Thursday likely targeted a faction called Lakurawa, which has recently emerged, and whose profile is still not fully known.

Explained by some of the factions:

Boko Haram: The most recognised armed group is Boko Haram, which is based in Borno State, northeast Nigeria.

Under Ibrahim Shekau’s leadership, the group kidnapped 300 school girls from their dormitory in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014, earning international notoriety.

It was most active between 2012 and 2015. The group targeted civilians and military installations in the Borno and neighboring Yobe and Adamawa states at the height of its activities. It also spread across porous borders into Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Both Christian and Muslim communities were targeted by Boko Haram by suicide bombings and mass kidnappings, as well as by attacking mosques and churches. Its main hideout was the Sambisa Forest in Borno, but it also controlled large swaths of rural territory where it taxed locals and operated as a government.

At the height of Boko Haram’s operations, at least 30 000 people died and millions were displaced. The group has been largely deflated by infighting and pressure from the Nigerian military. Much of the land it controlled has been lost since 2015, according to the organization.

ISWAP: The ISIL-affiliate in West Africa Province (ISWAP) broke away from Boko Haram in 2016 following disagreements between top military leaders. The two organizations have continued to fight violently.

ISWAP is believed to have between 8, 000 and 12, 000 fighters, according to the United Nations. It is active in the northwest of Nigeria and is currently active around the Lake Chad basin area.

It controls local communities, where it attempts to win support by providing basic amenities while taxing local farmers and fishermen.

Lakurawa: A recently established organization that operates in remote areas of northwest Sokoto State, including the local governments of Tangaza, Gudu, Illela, Binji, and Silame. It is also present in northwest Zamfara and Kebbi states.

Jabo, which is in Sokoto and was struck on Thursday, is known for having bandits, but locals say Lakurawa and other ISIL cells are not frequently present in the town.

Nigerian officials confirmed the group’s existence in November 2024 and designated it a terror group in January.

Ragtag bandit organizations had been pursuing remote communities in Zamfara and the Sokoto region prior to its development. In 2017, local leaders invited armed fighters from Mali and Niger, mostly from the Fulani pastoral ethnic group, to fight the bandits, as government presence was failing to deter them, according to researchers James Barnett and Vincent Foucher. Some of the arriving fighters were, however, affiliated with Niger and Mali’s armed organizations, including the ISIL in Sahel Province (ISSP), also known as the Islamic State Greater Sahara (ISGS).

By 2018, the fighters had moved on from rescuing victims from bandits to enforcing Islamic law on villages.

In recent years, Lakurawa elements have targeted security installations, becoming bolder and more deadly.

Researchers do not believe there is a single, homogenous Lakurawa group, but suggest that many factions are being clumped together by the government, potentially hampering an effective response. Some claim that the organization’s allegiance might lie with al-Qaeda rather than ISIL.

In 2024, a United Nations Security Council report confirmed the presence of ISGS affiliates in northwest Nigeria’s Sokoto State. How much coordinate ISWAP and Lakurawa?

Why is the Trump administration targeting Nigeria now?

According to President Trump, the US strikes were carried out to safeguard Christian communities in Nigeria.

United States Senator Ted Cruz first accused Nigeria’s government of enabling a “massacre” against Christians in October 2025, citing a rising number of attacks against the community in the country’s central Middle Belt region, which is separate from the violence in the north. He asserted without any proof that 50 000 Christians have perished since 2009. In September, he introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act which, if it passes Congress, would sanction Nigerian officials seen as complicit in the killings of Christians.

Cruz was making similar claims about a recent Christian genocide in Nigeria that the political right in the US supported.

Then, in November, Trump also accused Nigeria of a Christian genocide, referring to ISIL, and appearing to link the two separate issues. He also referred to Nigeria as a “Country of National Concern.”

But while Cruz and other far-right US voices identified the Middle Belt region of Nigeria as the site of the alleged “Christian genocide”, the US strikes on Thursday targeted a town in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north. Because of its largely Muslim population, bandits have abducted Muslim communities there and demanded ransom.

What is really happening in Nigeria?

The Trump administration’s presentation of the situation in Nigeria appears to have conflated two distinct issues, making the situation much more complex.

Nigeria is a vast country of 200 million people from more than 250 ethnic groups. It suffers from ethnoreligious violence as well as ideological armed groups’ actions.

The fertile Middle Belt region of the country, which Cruz referred to, has long been a hotbed of violence between predominantly Muslim herders from the majority Fulani ethnic group and Christian farming communities from different minority ethnic groups who have repeatedly clashed over land and water resources.

Over the past few years, the violence has largely targeted Christian farming communities and expanded in scope and weaponry.

The farmers say herder groups attack their communities in lethal raids using sophisticated weapons, burn whole villages to the ground and massacre civilians. Additionally, they target infrastructure like boreholes, churches, clinics, grain reserves, and schools.

In May, Amnesty International reported that close to 10, 000 people had been killed since 2023, including children, in the worst-affected states of Benue and Plateau, and that more than 500, 000 people have been displaced.

The affected communities reject this classification, saying it oversimplifies the issue and calls for an inadequate response. However, the government of Nigeria has long referred to this as a “local farmer-herdman crisis.” One community leader in Benue called recent killings a “full-scale genocidal invasion and land-grabbing campaign by herder terrorists and bandits”.

How much of a role did the US strikes play for Nigeria?

The Nigerian Foreign Ministry said the strikes had been carried out with the consent of Nigeria. However, opposition politicians are furious that Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, believes the US strikes violate the nation’s sovereignty.

“Judging by the nature of the confirmed strike on a village in Sokoto, it is clear that the US President under whose authority this operation occurred neither understands nor genuinely cares about Nigeria or Nigerians”, Omoyele Sowore, a former presidential candidate and leader of the African Action Congress, said in a statement on X.

“The lack of the capable and sovereign leadership required to protect its people and its territory is deeply troubling,” said one journalist.

Analyst Owolade told Al Jazeera it is unlikely that the US would launch strikes without Nigeria’s green light, but pointed out that the way the US has referred to the cooperation is quite different from how Nigeria is wording it.

This suggests a cooperative but unequal relationship, which is influenced by Nigeria’s dependence on foreign intelligence and military resources and the US’s desire to depict the conflict in Nigeria as a Christian genocide and project ISIS resolve in West Africa, he said.

What’s the history of US-Nigeria security collaboration?

In particular, through training and sales of weapons, the US has worked with Nigeria and other West African nations to combat the region’s threat of armed groups. This is the first time the US has directly conducted air strikes in Nigeria, however.

The US increased training cooperation with Nigeria and increased intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assistance during the Boko Haram crisis, particularly through the Joint Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF). The group includes Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin, which are all connected by Lake Chad, and which are all experiencing armed incursions.

However, the joint task force has started to disintegrate. Niger’s military government has been at odds with Nigeria since June 2023, when the military there seized power. Nigeria and other Western partners, such as France, disagree also. In August 2024, the US military began withdrawing from its important bases in the country, from where it monitored armed groups in the Sahel.