Nigeria indicated on Friday that additional military action against jihadist groups could follow a Christmas Day air strike carried out by US forces in the country’s north, describing the operation as a joint effort with the Nigerian military.
Africa’s most populous nation is grappling with overlapping security challenges across its northern regions. A long-running jihadist insurgency has plagued the northeast since 2009, while armed gangs known locally as bandits carry out raids and kidnappings in the northwest.
The US strike came amid recent diplomatic tension between Abuja and Washington, after former US president Donald Trump accused Nigeria of mass killings of Christians in the context of its multiple armed conflicts.
In a statement, Nigeria’s military said it had worked with the United States to conduct “precision strike operations against identified foreign ISIS-linked elements” in northwest Nigeria.
The US Department of Defense’s Africa Command said that “multiple ISIS terrorists” were killed in an operation in Sokoto state. US defence officials later released footage appearing to show a missile launched at night from a US naval vessel.
Residents of remote communities in Sokoto state, which borders Niger, reported being startled by the explosions.
“We heard a loud explosion which shook the whole town, and everyone was scared,” said Haruna Kallah, a resident of Jabo village in Tambuwal district, about 100 kilometres from Sokoto city. “We first thought it was an attack by Lakurawa, but later learnt it was a US drone strike. That surprised us because we have not had attacks here in the last two years.”
It remains unclear which armed groups were targeted in the operation. Nigeria’s jihadist movements are largely based in the northeast, though some have expanded their presence into the northwest.
Researchers have linked certain fighters from Lakurawa, an armed group operating in Sokoto state, to Islamic State Sahel Province, which is mainly active in Niger and Mali. Other analysts dispute these links, noting that the term Lakurawa is used broadly for different armed factions in the region, complicating research.
Some groups described as Lakurawa have also been reported to have ties to the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, a rival of Islamic State Sahel Province.
While the Nigerian government has welcomed the US strikes, Malik Samuel, an Abuja-based researcher with Good Governance Africa, said the decision reflected strong diplomatic pressure. “I think Trump would not have accepted a ‘no’ from Nigeria,” he said.
Samuel added that Nigerian authorities are keen to demonstrate cooperation with Washington, despite the fact that “both the perpetrators and the victims in the northwest are overwhelmingly Muslim.”
Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said President Bola Tinubu authorised the strikes, stressing that the operation should not be framed in religious terms. “It must be made clear that it is a joint operation, and it is not targeting any religion,” he said.
