New Delhi: The US Thursday launched strikes at ISIS, the terrorist organisation active in northwest Nigeria over its reported killings of Christians in the region. US President Donald Trump and his administration had been warning the Nigerian government for over a month to either act to protect Christians or face action.
“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even centuries!” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”
In early November, Trump had threatened to cut all aid to Nigeria if the government did not take more steps to protect Christians in the country. He had said that he might go into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” if it did not take concrete steps to stop the surge of ISIS.
Thursday’s strike involved more than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from US naval ships in the Gulf of Guinea which targeted at least two ISIS camps, The New York Times reported.
In a statement on X, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said the strikes had been carried out in coordination with the Nigerian authorities.
“At the direction of the President of the United States and the Secretary of War, and in coordination with Nigerian authorities, US Africa Command conducted strikes against ISIS terrorists in Nigeria on Dec. 25, 2025, in Sokoto State,” it stated.
The action by the US administration in Nigeria—the most populous country in Africa—comes in the wake of months of warnings and alarm raised by evangelical Christian groups and allies of Trump like Senator Ted Cruz over violence against Christians in the country.
Nigeria has rejected claims of sectarian killings, as it deals with an insurgency on for over a decade within its borders. An offshoot of ISIS, the Islamic State-Sahel (ISIS-Sahel) has been extremely active in the region, especially in the border regions between Nigeria and Niger.
The Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on X that Abuja and Washington DC cooperated together ahead of the strikes in Sokoto state on Christmas.
Kimiebi I. Ebienfa, spokesperson for the ministry, added in the statement that Abuja will continue to cooperate with “its partners” to weaken “terrorist networks” active within its borders.
The strike against the ISIS in Nigeria is the second such action against the terrorist group by the US in the last week. The US had hit ISIS positions in Syria last week after two American soldiers and an interpreter were killed there earlier in December.
While the strikes in Nigeria hit the northwest regions, it’s the northeast parts of the country that have seen an entrenched insurgency led primarily by groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) that have left thousands dead or injured.
In November alone, ISWAP and Boko Haram engaged in at least six clashes in the Lake Chad region, according to data published by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), an American non-profit organisation that provides reports on conflicts across the globe.
Between 5 November and 8 November, Boko Haram launched multiple operations against ISWAP in the Lake Chad region of Nigeria that left up to 200 dead, marking a serious escalation of inter-militant conflict in the African nation.
The last clashes among such groups with a similar intensity in Nigeria were in February 2023. Over 9,300 people have been killed in Nigeria alone from political violence and conflict between 1 December, 2023, and 29 November, 2024, according to ACLED.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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