US bombs target ISIL in Nigeria: What’s really going on?

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.

Source: Aljazeera