American forces carried out strikes northwest Nigeria on Thursday, targeting Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria.
President Donald Trump announced the operation on social media Thursday afternoon. He said the attack was against ISIS, which he said was killing Christian Nigerians in the country’s northwest. Trump did not provide many details on the operation, although U.S. Africa Command said in its own release that it hit several ISIS camps in the Sokoto state. At least one strike occurred in the village of Jabo; residents there told the Associated Press a large explosion occurred late on Thursday in the area, which had not seen terrorists attack.
AFRICOM confirmed that multiple airstrikes were conducted, with a Department of Defense video released afterward showing at least one missile launched from a ship. AFRICOM also said that multiple ISIS terrorists” were killed although that has not been independently confirmed. Photos shared by Reuters in the last hour of the aftermath at Jabo show burn marks on fields.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar confirmed to both al-Jazeera and the BBC that the Nigeria government coordinated with the United States ahead of the attack and the strikes had been planned “for quite some time.” Tuggar told the BBC that the attacks on Thursday had “nothing to do with a particular religion.”
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In November, Trump warned of possible American military action in Nigeria, accusing the government of allowing widespread violence against Christians to occur. The populous nation is largely split between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north, and currently has many ongoing internal conflicts. Researchers have said most of the violence in the north is actually committed against other Muslims, and much of the conflict in Nigeria is more along economic than sectarian lines.
It’s the first U.S. strike in Nigeria. Reuters reported that in recent weeks the U.S. military has flown repeated surveillance flights over the country. American forces have carried out dozens of airstrikes this year in Somalia, including some conducted by the Truman Carrier Strike Group from the Red Sea near the start of 2025 — with many targeting ISIS fighters in that east African nation.
