The United States has carried out an Air strike in Nigeria, targeting Islamic Militants in Northern part of the Country.

President Donal Trump has said  that the US carried out air strikes targeting Islamic State militants in north west Nigeria  on Thursday, 25th December,2025. After spending weeks decrying the group of targeting Christians within the region.

Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth social media platform; “Tonight the Commander in Chief of the United States at my direction launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorists Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and killing, primarily innocent Christian’s in the country, at levels not seen for many years and even centuries.

“I have  previously warned this terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, they would be hell to pay, and tonight they was. The Department of war executed  numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States are capable of doing.”

The US military’s Africa command stated that the strike was carried out in sokoto state in coordination with the Nigerian authorities. An earlier statement posted by the commander on X said the strike had been conducted at the request of Nigerian authorities, but that statement was later removed. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth stated that he was “grateful to the Nigerian Government support and cooperation”.

Forests in Sokoto, which is bordered by Niger to the North, have been used as base for gangs of armed bandits and members of the Islamic state Sahel Province (ISSP) locally known as “Lakurawa” . Some analysts say the letter’s cell in the state began as a group of herders banding together to fight incursions from bandits, in the absence of state support.

Nigeria’s foreign ministry said the strikes were carried out as part of the ongoing  security cooperation with the United States, involving intelligence sharing and strategic condition to target militant groups.

“This has led to precision hits on terrorist targets in Nigeria by air strikes in the North west”. The ministry said in a post on X.

Earlier this December US planes carried out surveillance mission around the region. It believed they were using an airport in neighboring Ghana as a launch base.

Trump has previously said that he would launch a “guns-a-blazing” US military intervention in Nigeria, claiming that the country government has been inadequate in its efforts to prevent attacks on Christians by Islamist groups”.

Nigeria is officially a secular country but their population is almost evenly divided between Muslims (53%) and Christians (45%). Violence against Christians has drawn significant international attention, most especially amongst the religious right in America, and it has always been framed as religious persecution.

However, the Nigeria’s government rejects framing the country’s violence in terms of religious persecution, saying in the past that armed groups target both Christians and Muslims, and US claims that Christians face persecution do not represent a complex security situation and ignore efforts to safeguard religious freedom. But the government had previously agreed with the United States to bolster its forces against militant groups.

A lot of analysts Nigerias situation is complex and has long roots in the regions history. In some parts of the country, clashes between intinerant Muslim herders and predominantly Christian farming communities are rooted in competition over land and water, but exacerbated by ethnicity and religion.

Pastors and Priests have been rapidly kidnapped for ransom, but some experts say this  may be a trend driven by criminal incentives rather than religious discrimination.

The strikes happened a day after a Christmas Eve bombing at a mosque in Northeast Nigeria killed atleast five people and left more than 30 others seriously wounded. The Nigerian army has attributed the suicide bombing in Borno, the Centre of a jidhadist insurgency for almost two decades to the Bokoharam.

Donald Trump, who positioned himself as the “candidate of peace” in 2024, campaigned on the promise of extricating the US from decades of “endless wars”. However his first year back in the White House has been notable for the number of military interventions overseas, with strikes on Yemen, Syria, Iran and others, as well as a huge military buildup in the Caribbean targeting Venezuela.