![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AP25356824599307-e1766768109942.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0said the United States launched a \u201cpowerful and deadly\u201d strike against forces of the\u00a0Islamic State\u00a0group in Nigeria, after\u00a0spending weeks\u00a0accusing the West African country\u2019s government of failing to rein in\u00a0the targeting of Christians.<\/p>\n
In a Christmas evening post on his social media site Thursday, Trump did not provide details or mention the extent of the damage caused by the strikes in the northwestern state of Sokoto.<\/p>\n
A Defense Department official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss details not made public, said the U.S. worked with Nigeria to carry out the strikes and that they\u2019d been approved by Abuja.<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the cooperation included exchange of intelligence and strategic coordination in ways \u201cconsistent with international law, mutual respect for sovereignty and shared commitments to regional and global security.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Associated Press could not confirm the extent of the strikes\u2019 impact.<\/p>\n
Nigeria is battling multiple armed groups, including at least two affiliated with IS, an offshoot of the Boko Haram extremist group known as the Islamic State West Africa Province in the northeast, and the less-known Lakurawa group prominent in the northwestern states, where the gangs use large swathes of forests as hideouts.<\/p>\n
Security analysts said the target of the U.S. strikes could be the Lakurawa group, which in the last year has increasingly become lethal in the region, often targeting remote communities and security forces.<\/p>\n
\u201cLakurawa is a group that is actually controlling territories in Nigeria, in Sokoto state and in other states like Kebbi,\u201d said Malik Samuel, a Nigerian security researcher at Good Governance Africa. \u201cIn the northwest, there has been the incursion of violent extremist groups that are ideologically driven,\u201d he said, blaming the incursion on the near absence of the state and security forces in hot spots.<\/p>\n
Trump said the airstrikes were launched against IS militants \u201cwho have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.\u201d Residents and security analysts have said Nigeria\u2019s\u00a0security crisis affects both Christians, predominant in the south, and Muslims, who are the majority in the north.<\/p>\n
\u201cTerrorist violence in any form, whether directed at Christians, Muslims or other communities, remains an affront to Nigeria\u2019s values and to international peace and security,\u201d the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s government has previously said in response to Trump\u2019s criticisms that people of many faiths, not just Christians, have suffered attacks at the hands of extremist groups.<\/p>\n
Trump ordered the Pentagon last month to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria to try and curb what he called Christian persecution. The State Department recently announced it would restrict visas for Nigerians and their family members involved in\u00a0killing Christians\u00a0there.<\/p>\n
And the\u00a0U.S. recently designated Nigeria\u00a0a \u201ccountry of particular concern\u201d under the International Religious Freedom Act.<\/p>\n
Trump said U.S. defense officials had \u201cexecuted numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing\u201d and added that \u201cour Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s population of 220 million is split almost equally between Christians and Muslims. The country has long faced insecurity from various fronts, including\u00a0Boko Haram, which seeks to establish its radical interpretation of Islamic law and has also targeted Muslims it deems not Muslim enough.<\/p>\n
But attacks in Nigeria often have varying motives. There are religiously motivated ones targeting both\u00a0Christians\u00a0and Muslims,\u00a0clashes between farmers and herders\u00a0over dwindling resources, communal rivalries,\u00a0secessionist groups\u00a0and ethnic clashes.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0U.S. security footprint has diminished\u00a0in Africa, where military partnerships have either been\u00a0scaled down or canceled. U.S. forces likely would have to be drawn from other parts of the world for any larger-scale military intervention in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Trump has nonetheless kept up the pressure as Nigeria faced a\u00a0series of attacks on schools\u00a0and\u00a0churches in violence\u00a0that experts and residents say\u00a0targets both Christians and Muslims.<\/p>\n
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted Thursday night on X: \u201cThe President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hegseth said that U.S. military forces are \u201calways ready, so ISIS found out tonight \u2014 on Christmas\u201d and added, \u201cMore to come\u2026Grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation\u201d before signing off, \u201cMerry Christmas!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#U.S #launches #strikes #Islamic #State #group #Nigeria #attacks #target #Christians<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0said th… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[279,5987,5988,1594,3377,61,5986,3378,1140,2483,764,1137],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}