U.S. forces struck multiple locations in Nigeria’s Sokoto State on Christmas Day in an operation Trump administration officials claimed targeted ISIS militants, but mounting evidence suggests a more complex and contested picture of who was actually hit.
“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 wrote Thursday evening on Truth Social.
However, residents of Jabo, one of the villages where missile debris landed, told reporters they have no history of ISIS or terrorist activity in their area.
“We have never experienced anything like this before,” local resident Abubakar Sani told The Associated Press. “As it approached our area, the heat became intense. Our rooms began to shake, and then fire broke out.”
Bashar Isah Jabo, a state lawmaker representing the area, described Jabo to CNN as “a peaceful community” with “no known history of ISIS, Lakurawa, or any other terrorist groups operating in the area.” He said missile debris struck a field approximately 500 meters from the town’s only health center.
The nature of the actual targets has become increasingly unclear. While U.S. Africa Command stated the strikes killed “multiple ISIS terrorists,” Nigerian officials have offered varying accounts. Daniel Bwala, a spokesman for Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, told AFP the operation targeted a combination of “ISIS, Lakurawa and bandits,” referring to criminal gangs that dominate northwestern Nigeria.
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Security analysts say the likely intended targets were members of Lakurawa, an armed group that operates in Sokoto State. However, experts dispute whether Lakurawa has proven ties to Islamic State. “Ties between the Lakurawa group and the Islamic State are unproven,” PBS News reported, citing security researchers.
Some analysts believe Lakurawa’s allegiance may be to al-Qaeda rather than ISIS.
“Researchers do not believe there is a single, homogenous Lakurawa group, but suggest that many factions are being clumped together by the government,” Al Jazeera reported.
The geographic location of the strikes has puzzled experts familiar with Nigeria’s security landscape. Nigeria’s Islamic State affiliate, known as Islamic State West Africa Province, operates primarily in the northeastern part of the country around Lake Chad, not in the northwest where Thursday’s strikes occurred.
“I’m not privy to any current intelligence on this, so I can’t speak to why the targeting occurred in Sokoto,” J. Peter Pham, former U.S. special envoy for the Sahel region during Trump’s first term, told PBS NewsHour. “Certainly, it’s a mystery to me. There are a couple other places I would have picked to hit extremists in Nigeria.”
Pham also questioned the strikes’ relevance to protecting Christians, saying they would have “a very limited impact” on violence against Christian communities, which occurs primarily in Nigeria’s central and northeastern regions, not the northwest.
Trump’s characterization of the violence as primarily targeting Christians has drawn criticism from Nigerian officials and independent analysts. Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar emphasized that the strikes were “not targeting any religion” and called terrorism in Nigeria “not a religious conflict.”
Nigerian governance researcher Malik Samuel wrote on social media that the strikes show “either a lack of understanding of regional dynamics or a deliberate attempt to fit its Christian genocide narrative for the American public.”
Sokoto State is home to 4 million people, the majority of whom are Muslim. Experts note that most victims of armed groups in the region have been Muslim residents.
The operation was conducted with Nigerian government coordination. Tuggar said he spoke twice with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio before and after the strikes, and that President Tinubu authorized the cooperation. More than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from a Navy vessel, according to U.S. officials.
Nigerian Information Minister Mohammed Idris said the strikes targeted “ISIS elements attempting to penetrate Nigeria from the Sahel corridor” in the Bauni forest of Tangaza district. He claimed 16 GPS-guided munitions from Reaper drones successfully neutralized two ISIS enclaves, though he acknowledged debris from munitions fell in Jabo and another town in Kwara State.
No civilian casualties were reported, though residents described intense fear and confusion. “The Nigerian government should take appropriate measures to protect us as citizens,” Sani said.
The strikes followed months of warnings from Trump, who in November instructed the Pentagon to prepare for possible action and threatened to send troops “guns-a-blazing” if violence against Christians continued. He designated Nigeria a “country of particular concern” regarding religious persecution.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which monitors violence, told PBS NewsHour that while data show a rise in Christian fatalities in Nigeria, they occurred mostly in central Nigeria, and the vast majority of incidents involved land disputes between farmers and herders rather than religious targeting.
Some Nigerian opposition politicians criticized the operation as a violation of sovereignty, noting Trump announced the strikes before the Nigerian government did. “The country has been reduced to a bystander while its sovereignty is violated,” said Omoyele Sowore, founder of a prominent Nigerian media outlet.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed the operation on social media, writing that “ISIS found out tonight — on Christmas” and added, “More to come.”
