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President Donald Trump is taking motion in opposition to Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria, following by way of on earlier threats and signing off on airstrikes concentrating on the group on Thursday.
Whereas the Christmas strikes zeroed in on ISIS militants, there are a variety of violent extremist organizations working in Africa’s Sahel area, the place U.S. officers declare they’re persevering with to develop in affect and energy as violence surges there.
The strikes carried out on Christmas occurred in Nigeria’s Sokoto State on the border of neighboring Niger. The realm is the place the Islamic State’s (IS) Sahel Province, which is essentially based mostly in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, has “made inroads into Nigeria,” in line with Caleb Weiss, an editor with the Basis for the Protection of Democracies’ Lengthy Battle Journal.
President Donald Trump introduced assaults in opposition to terrorists in Nigeria, killing Christians. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Picture and Adekunle Ajayi/Getty Pictures)
“In Sokoto, it has carried out assaults in opposition to each authorities forces and civilians, representing only one jihadist group working in Nigeria,” Weiss stated in an announcement Thursday.
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Moreover, different ISIS branches like IS West Africa Province, in addition to organizations tied to different violent extremist teams like al Qaeda, are additionally lively within the area, he stated. These embrace Boko Haram, a Nigerian-based group that the State Division designated a overseas terrorist group in 2013, in addition to offshoots of al Qaeda like Ansaru and The Group for Assist of Islam and Muslims, also called Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, or JNIM.
“Along with IS Sahel, there may be additionally IS West Africa Province, which helps and coordinates with IS Sahel in NW Nigeria; the so-called Boko Haram; and the Al-Qaeda teams of Ansaru and the Group for Assist of Islam and Muslims, which, like IS Sahel, is a bunch primarily based mostly in Mali and Burkina Faso, however in recent times have additionally made inroads into Nigeria that has successfully made the Sahelian and Nigerian conflicts one massive battle,” Weiss stated.
In the meantime, the Sahel area, which primarily contains Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, is ripe for terrorist exercise, and U.S. officers have lengthy cautioned concerning the risk that these teams pose to the U.S. homeland.
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For instance, Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley, who’s the pinnacle of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), advised reporters in Might that extremist teams are gaining floor and “increasing their ambitions,” which means the risk to the U.S. homeland is rising as these teams achieve “functionality and capability” within the Sahel area.
A drone view of Christians departing St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church after a Sunday mass in Palmgrove, Lagos, Nigeria, on Nov. 2, 2025. (REUTERS/Sodiq Adelakun)
“It’s the flashpoint of extended battle and rising instability. It’s the epicenter of terrorism on the globe,” Langley stated.
In the meantime, Trump introduced Thursday that he directed the strikes in northwest Nigeria, after beforehand warning he would take motion following latest assaults within the area in opposition to Christians.
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“I’ve beforehand warned these Terrorists that if they didn’t cease the slaughtering of Christians, there can be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” Trump stated on Thursday in a put up on Reality Social. “The Division of Battle executed quite a few excellent strikes, as solely the US is able to doing.”
It’s unclear how many individuals had been killed within the assaults, though Trump stated that the strikes had been “lethal.” AFRICOM stated Thursday that its preliminary evaluation is “a number of” ISIS terrorists had been killed within the assault.
Christians and Christian establishments have confronted a sequence of assaults in Nigeria. In November, two individuals had been killed and dozens had been kidnapped after gunmen raided the Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara State. Those that had been kidnapped had been liberated nearly per week later.
A newspaper vendor pulls a newspaper with an article reporting U.S. President Donald Trump’s message to Nigeria over the remedy of Christians, at a newspaper stand in Ojuelegba, Lagos, Nigeria, Nov. 2, 2025. (REUTERS/Sodiq Adelakun)
Additionally in November, armed attackers stormed St. Mary’s College in Niger State, an occasion that resulted within the kidnapping of greater than 300 college students and employees. Though faculty officers later stated roughly 50 college students had been capable of break away, greater than 250 college students and 21 lecturers are nonetheless in captivity.
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The Trump administration moved to designate Nigeria a “nation of explicit concern” in November. Nigeria has pushed again in opposition to the U.S. authorities’s designation.
Fox Information’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
